Horner: Seven teams can miss last races

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner fears some Formula 1 teams will have to miss the final races of the season if budget limits are not raised.

By 2022, each team will not be allowed to spend more than $140 million. Christian Horner believes that given high inflation, some teams will not be able to meet this amount, and that skipping races is the only way not to go over the limit.

Christian Horner “Seven teams will likely have to miss the last four races of the season this year to meet budget constraints. We are not just talking about the leaders, but also the teams in the middle of the pack, who are having problems due to rising inflation.

The FIA ​​needs to fix this problem and I know they take this seriously. Electricity bills, cost of living – all costs are rising exponentially. Freight costs have quadrupled and we have no control over it.”

Horner’s position is supported by Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren. Teams Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Haas and Williams voted against a proposal to adjust the budget for inflation, calculated on data from the International Monetary Fund. In part, they were against it, fearing the leading teams would offer to increase budgets to keep the cost of refining the car high.

Alpine CEO Otmar Szafnauer believes there is no need to increase budgets: “We set budgets in advance and put a little inflation in it. I don’t support the idea of ​​increasing budgets.

Yes, transport costs have increased from 2.5 million to 3.5 million. [за сезон], but if your budget for the development of the car is twenty million, can you reduce it to seventeen million so as not to exceed the budget cap? You can.

In this case, however, you are limiting your ability to develop the machine. If you have the money, it’s much easier to go to the FIA ​​and lobby for higher costs to keep the budget for car improvements.”