A unit of measurement is needed to assess the extent of development updates during the 2022 Formula One season. Gunther Steiner, Haas team principal, always very frank and sincere, revealed a specific figure: 10 million dollars. This would be the average value of the budget that the top teams will be able to invest for developing the single-seaters during the 2022 championship.
We are talking about an important “treasure”, even if it is a relatively low percentage compared to the limit of the Budget cap set at 140 million dollars (plus bonuses granted gradually by the FIA).
Obviously there is no rule as to how the 140 milion are spent, but depending on the different characteristics of the individual teams, the value can change and there are those who believe that no team can spend more than 10 million dollars for upgrades.
The teams are carefully watching each other and given the “price list” that the FIA has defined in the financial regulation, it is not impossible to count the development expenses in the first five races of the season: according to Motorsport Italy, Red Bull has already exceeded 75% of those 10 million that we mentioned earlier and Mercedes would have already reached beyond this figure, so the package of updates that Mercedes will bring to Barcelona could be the last of the major ones.
Ferrari, on the other hand, has so far maintained an F1-75 similar to the car that made its debut at Sakhir, so now it can put on the table a series of innovations, not just aerodynamics, which should allow it to get closer to Red Bull after it was clear in Imola and Miami that Red Bull can currenly count on a faster car. And it will be important that all the new parts work for the Maranello team, because given the budget cap, no one can throw money out the window.
Leave a Reply