Top teams complain of their suffering. Red Bull and Mercedes will have to scrape together a penny each to meet budget cap requirements. In France, it also demanded that the FIA eliminate yellow baguette curbs because they damage cars. The problem may reappear in Austria.
For the big players in the premier class, the work is huge. The top teams will have to earn between $80-100 million less out of their own pockets in 2021. The budget cap is forcing them to drastically cut their spending. To go below the upper limit, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull do pull-ups in the sauna. McLaren and Renault will also have to drive back. They are under-reported at between 20 and 30 million. It is easy for them to shrink health because they do not climb from high postures, but it is by no means easy.
The rest of the field comes from the other side. For Alfa Tauri, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Williams and Haas, it’s all about getting to the roof in the first place. This season, it is not the original US$145 million valuation for racing operations, development budget and personnel costs, but US$149.8 million. Due to 23 scheduled races (instead of 21) and two Grand Prix in Canada and Turkey, which were canceled at short notice, the FIA allows more. Each top has $1.2 million.
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Yellow deflectors prevent drivers from driving through the curve and over the limit of the route.
Request from Race Director Masik
Top teams complain anyway. Mercedes and Red Bull a lot, on the other hand, Ferrari is relatively quiet. Friday’s training for the French GP spoke volumes. Mercedes and Red Bull, in turn, counted on race director Michael Massi and asked him to take action. Your intention: Please ask the Australian player to remove the yellow deflectors on the edge of the track.
First Valtteri Bottas broke the front wing on the “baguettes” next to the actual curb, then Max Verstappen. Your team’s managers reported via radio and reported damage in the five-point to six-point range. The aunt was strict. Offensive deflectors also decorated the runoff areas of Circuit Paul Ricard on Saturday and Sunday. Argument: “You were in 2019 too.” But there was still no budget cap.
In any case, it would have been practically impossible to use an overnight time loop as an alternative. For that you have to dig the asphalt. Without physical limits, without sensors, there probably would have been wild evolution. Drivers could do whatever they wanted. This would have triggered a tedious discussion about the extent of the track again.
Will probably continue in Spielberg
No team is really happy with the Yellow Deflectors. “It’s a mess. You must set the limit where the driver is out immediately,” said Red Bull’s sporting director Helmut Marko. So a gravel bed, for example. Stones also damage cars, but above all punish drivers.
“I’m not a fan of a solution that damages cars,” Aston Martin team boss Otmar Szafner said of the baguette curbs. “It may happen that the driver is given a choice in a duel. Either drive on these restrictions or in another car.” Both variants cause damage.
Haas team boss Genther Steiner says: “Whether small or big team: imposing sanctions that destroy cars is not constructive. We have to be smart.” There were other voices in the paddock. Should drivers stay away from the deflector. It will not come apart along the wall.
We can say: get ready now that this will continue to be the case in Austria. With its curbs and yellow “sausage” curbs – the famous long sausages next to Turns 1 and 3 – Red Bull Ring is one of the most aggressive tracks on the racing calendar. For the front wing, bodywork, suspension. In terms of budget limits, therefore some teams would prefer to visit Spielberg only once.
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Spielberg has particularly aggressive curbs and yellow “sausage” curbs.
Even less budget in 2022
2021 is the first part of the task. Next year’s budget continues to fall. The rules set an upper limit of $140 million—five million less than originally this season. Maybe it doesn’t seem like much. However, the top teams from the lower tier complain of headaches and stomachaches, who are bargaining for more than a thousand. The water is already up to your neck.
Problem: It is difficult to calculate the damage in advance. Minor accidents can happen at any time. Teams take the past as a reference for planning. But what does this mean? Take for example Mercedes at Imola: there have been no collisions with Williams that have resulted in millions in losses in the past.
The budget cap and its consequences: The neutral fan can be rubbing its hands. No team knows the recipe for success based on adequate staffing levels and development budgets. How many people would you have to hire to have enough creative minds? 500, 700, 800? You know: the more heads, the more ideas. How much do you invest in other projects to have more budget left for the car?
Then there is the big cut in wind tunnel and CFDs. In the past, the big guys could go several different directions, pick the most promising, and then dump the remaining nine solutions into the bin. Today they have neither the time nor the computing capacity nor the money to do so. Sooner or later this will mean: the winner will no longer be the one with the most money, but the team that works most efficiently.
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