Ferrari pinpoints personnel reinforcements “risk” amid 2021 rule change. F1 is expected to expand to a record 22 races next year.

Formula 1 teams will face a “risk” in getting the staff required for an increased calendar within the proposed 2021 budget cap, according to Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto. F1 is expected to expand to a record 22 races next year, and with owner Liberty Media maintaining its push to add new events the schedule could balloon further the year after.

While Mattia Binotto is not opposed to the expansion in principle, as he is aware of the “business necessities”, the Ferrari team boss says new races will demand personnel reinforcements.

“I think we need first to make sure that from the financial [side] we are doing the right choices. There should be a benefit in terms of the overall financial balance. If the balance is positive, yes, we need to [re-]organise ourselves. We cannot afford an entire season of 24 races with the same single individuals.” – he said, as reported by Autosport earlier today.

The Italian side’s Team Principal believes a further increase in grand prix events will require rotation of not just mechanics, but the higher-ups in the teams’ structures: “It means we will need extra people, to rotate them, from the mechanics to the engineers, even key people, because some mechanics already today are rotating, but key people normally not. I think as a team we want to make sure you’re keeping your people in the future, [so] you need to really try to manage the effort throughout the season, so in the end, it will have a big impact. It will have a big impact from the number of people, it will have a big impact logistically, because you need to somehow manage the transport of all the parts. So it’s not easy, and there’s very little time to organise ourselves as well, because increasing the number of people is not something you do easily, [and doing so] using the budget cap. So here is the risk, because you may not [be able to] afford the right number of people simply because you need to manage extra salaries [under the budget cap]. Not an easy one.” – he added.

F1 is poised for a $175m spending cap per year in 2021, which Mattia Binotto says is still “very high for small teams” while admitting the big teams may overspend in the next two years to make up for its impact in advance.