Racing Point F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer encouraged his fellow mid-field team bosses to be less selfish when it comes to the budget cap’s lowering.
Scroll through any F1 Facebook group, and it will be littered articles related to the budget cap. Specifically, the potential lowering of the ceiling of it has been a major point of discussion as COVID-19 pandemic wrecks havoc around the globe.
The topic has garnered significant attention, not only for its direct, obvious impact on the future of the sport, but also because of the fire it has lit within the top teams, who all have passionate opinions about the topic.
The two powerhouses of the series to have clashed with regards to the budget cut-off are McLaren and Ferrari, with the former pushing for a lowered cap to ensure the survival of the smaller teams, and the latter defending a cap of $145-150 million so that they can retain as many staff members as possible.
At this stage it is uncertain who is on whose side but Haas’ Guenther Steiner and now Racing Point’s Szafnauer has put in the caution to McLaren’s demands of pushing for even lower cap, which will force not only Ferrari but also Mercedes and Red Bull to think.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Szafnauer urged fellow team principals of teams similar in size to his to not be greedy, suggesting that further budget cuts are unnecessary. The initial cap was at $175 million but it is set to be lowered to $145, with McLaren seeking more.
“I think we’ll have a proposal pretty soon, either by the end of this week or early next week. We’ll see what Jean and Chase and FOM come up with,” said Szafnauer. “Maybe I’m more pragmatic than many others, but I think what we need to do here is look at the entirety of the sport – not just be selfish as we generally are for our own position.
“Yes, the big teams have come down from 175 to something smaller, but 100m for them might be just a little bit too far to go and a little bit too deep of a cut. So I think somewhere in between there is just about right. We’ve got to be realistic and pragmatic so that we don’t have a budget cap where some of the bigger teams say, ‘do you know what, at this level I’m not efficient.
“I’m better off taking my x-amount of world championships and leaving’. We don’t want that. We want to keep everybody racing, keep F1 in its entirety that it is today. So we should go for a budget cap that either keeps everybody equally upset, or equally happy,” summed up Szafnauer.
It’s worth nothing, though, that politics are never far when such things are discussed, and its possible that – as a team that will become a major one as they band together with Aston Martin – this could be a strategic play from Szafnauer to benefit his team’s future.
Szafnauer also talked about the extended shutdown and how they are trying to keep things lubricated and not let it rusty but he was slightly concerned about the electronics which could take time to re-start. He then added on the pandemic affecting business.
Pinning on the manufacturers’ work like Audi pulling out of DTM, Szafnauer feels that it depends on each teams’ personal situation but hopes that F1 won’t see a situation like that. He also mentioned that he doesn’t see Toto Wolff to be a shareholder of Aston Martin team.
Here’s latest from Ross Brawn regarding 2020 season and 2021 cost cap
Here’s last from Otmar Szafnauer on multiple topics
Here’s Sergio Perez on F1 Live on Instagram
Here’s news about Racing Point furlough
Here’s Racing Point on Aston Martin change
The story was edited by Darshan Chokhani