Scuderia Ferrari has revealed the total cost of the car damage that the Maranello team has incurred over the first half of the 2021 Formula 1 season as the Italian side continues to push for the idea of crash compensations.
Scuderia Ferrari Team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed the repair bill for the 11 events which took place this year: “If I look at the damage we had so far since the very first race we had in Bahrain up to the last race in Hungary, if I count all damages we have on track, it’s more than 2.5 million Euros. That’s showing how significant they are, and it’s only half of the season.”
The figure includes single and multiple-car crashes. “These are overall damages,” said Mattia Binotto. “Sometimes we can damage ourselves.”
The total, equivalent to £2.1 million, accounts for slightly more than 2% of the total spending the team is allowed under the budget cap. “We’ve got some contingency in our final budget gap which I think we need to have because you never know the surprises we have from now to the end and crashes and damage” – the Ferrari boss added.
Charles Leclerc has been involved in two significant crashes this year. He was taken out at the first corner by Lance Stroll in Hungary, and hit the barrier during qualifying in Monaco. Carlos Sainz Jnr also crashed his Ferrari during qualifying last weekend, and the pair have been involved in other, less damaging incidents.
Following the Hungarian Grand Prix crash Mattia Binotto called for Formula 1 teams to be given exemptions from the budget cap to pay for repairs arising from crashes they were not responsible for. However the Ferrari boss is aware that introducing such exemptions to the financial regulations would be difficult to achieve:
“Obviously there’s been a lot of discussions and still as well discussion ongoing. If there is a crash, there is a guilty driver and you are not [at fault], if you have been damaged, should that be exempt from budget cap? I think it’s certainly an important point. The reason why I mentioned the 2.5 is to show that overall the damages can be significant and so, should we consider a different type of regulation in those cases? Certainly there is merit for it [but] I think that certainly there is no obvious solutions. But I think something that no doubt we will discuss with the FIA, Formula 1 and all the other teams in the next coming weeks, and try possibly to address it if there is any solution for the future.” – Mattia Binotto concluded.
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