In the past year, the Red Bull Racing team was the only one to be fined for breaching financial regulations and its leader, Christian Horner, would like certain amendments to be made to this document in the future.
“It is clear that the FIA is going through a period of major reform,” Horner told RacingNews365. – This includes a new approach to refereeing matches and a change in the leadership of the federation. In general, we all continue to learn in all aspects of the business we are involved in.
So far, no one can say that everything has been thoroughly studied – neither the teams, nor the FIA itself, nor the championship promoter. There is always something that can be improved. The process of constant evolution will continue as long as there is such a desire.
It could be argued that small teams have too much influence on the introduction of rules that do not affect them in any way, but do affect the work of top teams. First of all due to limited budgets and I think the FIA and Formula 1 should pay attention to this.
I’ll give you a basic argument regarding technology partnerships, which has always been extremely important for Formula 1. For example, your team has a sponsor who makes computers and he wants to give you a new laptop model. You may not need such a laptop, but the sponsor wants you to demonstrate their products.
However, if such a laptop is considered when drawing up a limited budget, then you will have to refuse it. We can try to improve these aspects so as not to hinder the entry of technology companies into F1.
Overall, in my opinion, financial regulations are an extremely complex document. And of course these rules are still being adjusted. I would like to see the principle of limiting budgets not cause such severe stress for the teams during the development process.
But while we are all learning, this process continues. I think there are many upsides to moving to tight budgets, but there are areas that could be improved.
I think we should standardize certain components that don’t affect the efficiency of the machine. There are many, including in transmission, etc., and in my opinion, we still have work to do here. If we talk about the engine, more standard components can also be used there, because the regulations for power plants developed for 2026 still entail a very high cost level.”
Initially it was planned to limit the budgets to $175 million, but the outbreak of the pandemic had a negative impact on the economic situation of the teams, after which everyone agreed to lower this bar to $145 million in 2021, and in 2022 it was at $140 million.
In 2023, the limit was lowered to $135 million, but will be adjusted due to inflation processes. At the same time, Horner believes the budget cap should be raised as inflation in the UK, where many Formula 1 teams are based, hit a record 14% last September. In December they were back at the 10% level, but the situation remains alarming.
“When you see inflation like that in the UK and other countries, it affects everything else our workers suffer, which is unfair,” Horner continued. – I think more serious tolerances should be introduced to at least take into account the increase in the cost of living.
In addition, with the number of races we now participate in and with the increase in the number of sprint races, we have to bring more and more spare parts to the stages, because we cannot afford not to go to the start. All of this also affects the level of costs, so I believe that these factors should also be taken into account from 2024 and beyond.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
