Since 2021, Formula 1 teams have been operating under a budget cap. It started at 145 million dollars (about 138 million euros) last season, and has been reduced to 140 million (133 million euros) by 2022. However, since it was introduced, the situation worldwide has changed. hardened as it has been rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
As a result, many teams have asked to increase the salary cap, in response to the increased costs they are facing. Beat Zehnder , sporting director of Alfa Romeo, explained some of the reasons to the Sky network.
“One problem is definitely the war in Ukraine, because 35% of cargo planes come from Russia and they are no longer allowed to fly.”
This leads to two main problems, summarized in size and time. “One is maritime transport. The demand is so great that the ships are no longer sufficient and there are things that are being transferred to air transport. And maritime transport is not without problems either, because the ships are getting bigger and bigger.”
“Today, we have container ships with 28,000 containers, and it takes us five days to load and unload them, when it used to take a day and a half. All delivery times have been lengthened. What used to take us 45 days to do now is about 75,” Zehnder explained.
“Five sets of sea cargo are no longer enough, so we are now acquiring a sixth,” continues the Swiss engineer. “It’s a lot of money, it’s not part of the budget cap because it’s an investment. But freight prices have gone up a lot, we’re paying 160% more for air freight than in 2020.”
These costs are one of the reasons he sees a cost cap adjustment as necessary, but not all teams agree on the amount. “As always, we don’t agree on how much we should adjust it. The big teams want between seven and eight million, but we would actually get by with less.”
That is why he sees it necessary to adjust the budget cap: “As always, we do not agree on how much we should adjust it. The big teams want between seven and eight million. In reality, we would get by with less.”
AlphaTauri team leader Franz Tost also offered his opinion: “At AlphaTauri we would be in favor of making some improvements, because the costs, especially with regard to logistics, have increased enormously. But also the rate of inflation, which which means that we are already well over the limit, that for one thing.
“On the other hand, we have to say, ok, that’s the cost limit, so we can’t develop [the cars] as much. Now we’ll see how the teams agree. At the moment, three are still against it. And everything The rest will be decided in the future. But I think there will be a little adjustment.”
Gunther Steiner , director of Haas, is more skeptical: “I maintain it, we have a budget cap and, in my opinion, we have to be careful that it does not get out of hand again,” he said, warning of a hasty adjustment . “You have to be careful how you treat him.”
“We still have to discuss what we really want, if it is a one-off adjustment due to transport costs, which are very high at the moment. They could go down again in the future. So I think there will be some more discussions before go change the limit”.
