“It will be a development ‘war’, with financial limitations we must be careful and think about targeted updates, making sure that what we bring to the track works”, said Adrian Newey (Red Bull), echoed by both Toto Wolff (Mercedes) and Mattia Binotto (Ferrari).
From the 2022 Formula 1 season, the development will not only be the result of the skills of the engineers but also the ability to manage the budget cap. $ 145 million was the available budget last season, this year it was initially set at $ 140 million. This is if the calendar consisted of 21 Grands Prix. Given that 23 events are scheduled for the current championship, even with the abandonment of the Russian GP, there is an extra budget of 1.2 million to be considered for each additional race weekend, in total 2.4 million, to which we must add another 0.9 million foreseen as an extra for the three qualifying sprints on Saturday. We thus arrive at an extra budget of 3.3 million dollars to be added to the 140 which is close to what the various teams could already use up to last season.
But who will verify everything? It is a legitimate question, as explained by Piergiuseppe Donadoni and Giuliano Duchessa for formu1a.uno. In fact, there are those who think that, in addition to being gray areas in the technical regulation, there may also be some in the financial one. For this reason, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto continues to warn the Formula 1 management that someone could exceed the budget limit, something that could prove to be crucial and decisive this season in the fight for the world championship. The Federation is aware of this priority for the teams. “If there is no control, the whole system collapses” has already made known the head of Liberty Media, Stefano Domenicali:
“Today it is no longer enough to control only the technical part”, continued the Italian, “but we also need strict control over the financial part and for this reason the FIA is gearing up to be even more resilient in this role”. Controls will not only be made in the gray areas but also concerning some variables that, to the detriment of F1, were difficult to predict at the time of the introduction of the budget cap such as inflation or transport costs “which have increased in a way that is difficult to predict in the last few weeks” – the F1 CEO stressed. Discussions are already underway, and will continue in the coming weeks, to find the right solutions and to “guarantee everyone the same opportunities”.
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