Top teams push for budget adjustments

Christian Horner and Mattia Binotto say their teams will not be able to meet the $140 million budget due to high inflation and rising logistics and material costs.

The Scuderia chief stressed at a press conference on Saturday that they would have no real chance of staying within the allotted budget, while Horner said Red Bull Racing would either have to save money or skip a few races to even get close to the target. allowable costs. level.

All this is being said as part of a discussion about the need to raise the budget cap, which teams like McLaren, Aston Martin and AlphaTauri are also ready for.

The Financial Regulation provides for various fines for budget overruns, depending on the size of this surplus and the nature of the violations. At the same time, a delta of 5% is provided, for which they will not be fined, as this is considered a minor violation.

According to Binotto, due to force majeure, the teams will not be able to reach the $140 million mark: “There is just no way to stay at this level and I am sure we will exceed it at some point.

The regulation provides for a threshold of 5%. If the surplus of the budget is less than 5%, then such a violation is considered insignificant. And if the budget overrun is caused by force majeure, what are the decisions of the stewards and the FIA ​​regarding fines? I have no idea.

But I don’t think we and many other teams will be able to meet the allocated budgets, even if we cut staff. But I must immediately notice that I do not think this is the right choice.

It’s already summer and by the time you can organize all this, the effect will not be enough to offset the rise in prices and costs.

Christian Horner has already said that in this situation the teams will be forced to miss several races, and today he explained that he cited this as an example to illustrate the gravity of the situation.
“To even get close to the level where budgets are limited, you have to save money which is equivalent to skipping multiple races, and last weekend I was just trying to emphasize this,” said the Red Bull head. racing. “All the top teams will go over $140 million this year. What we don’t want to do is play dumb games. Suppose Ferrari goes over the budget by $4.9 million, and we go over $4.7 million, and spend that money to the development that could influence the outcome of the championship?

We want to get clarification, and quickly, because it is wrong if everything is stopped by two teams that are not affected by this situation.

The purpose of the transition to limited budgets was not in this at all, but to deprive the top teams of the opportunity to indulge in extravagance. When we agreed to introduce such a budget cap — let’s not forget that it was $30 million less than the level originally proposed because of the pandemic — no one could have foreseen how inflation-raising events would unfold globally.

We can’t even predict inflation in the second half of the year. Everyone sees the cost of living rising, utility bills exceeding every limit imaginable – where will all this come in six months?

We need the FIA ​​to start trading early because there’s not much we can do halfway through the year. In addition, we have obligations to our employees.

Last year we were forced to cut staff to meet the budget cap, but that was before inflation started to pick up. And I don’t think the threat of massive budget cuts is good for Formula 1. I hope common sense prevails. This is a force majeure situation that no one could have foreseen, and now we just have to find a reasonable solution.”

Alfa Romeo is one of those teams that objects to increasing the budget cap. Its head, Frederic Vasseur, does not consider inflation to be force majeure.

“Inflation is not force majeure,” Vasser said. – Last fall, when we discussed the budget, everyone knew very well that inflation was inevitable. And now it’s up to the teams to decide whether they want to keep upgrading the car all season and miss four races, or slow down the pace of modernization and spend the whole season.

I’m sure at some point we’ll agree that it’s not worth changing the rules of the game after a few races.

At the same time, Mattia Binotto makes the argument that top teams once agreed to a compromise solution when a reasonable budget cap was discussed, so now smaller teams should take this position too.

“Whatever the situation with small teams, there is a sense of responsibility that we showed in 2020 when we agreed to lower the budget cap from $175 million to $145 million,” recalls the head of the Scuderia. “It was not in our interest to agree to this. The easiest way was to stop at the $175 million level and say the discussion ends there.

But we made an effort for ourselves, because we understood how important it was to come to an agreement, we understood that it was important to balance the situation with the teams’ budgets. But now that we know to what level they are limited, we understand that the regulations need to be adjusted, and all teams need to understand this and show accountability.

But if a team just pursues its own interests, we’ll never get anywhere.”