Andreas Seidl has opened up about the lost momentum of McLaren due to COVID-19 stoppage as he adds on F1 budget cap and potential 2020 calendar.
For most of the top brass within motorsport, there have been an abundance of media appearances as many teams aim to stay relevant and in the news cycle at a time when no racing is occurring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seidl gave his time to F1.com, with whom he discussed a number of things. Chief among them was the COVID-19 crisis, and its impact on F1 and the teams. The virus has taken several races and forced numerous schedule changes, which he also discussed.
However, he was primarily focused on any negative affects it might have on McLaren’s resurgence. After a torrid few years from 2014 to 2018, the Woking-based outfit clawed their way back up the order to some extent in 2019, winning the ‘best of the rest’ honors.
Once again, they looked set to have a nice year in 2020, but with the F1 season in limbo, Seidl is concerned that the team’s momentum may be slowed. “The important thing at the moment is to get through this crisis, survive it as a team, as F1, and then we have a clear plan in place of what we have to do in the next months and years in order to move up the grid again,” said the German.
“It’s clear with the shift of regulations for one year, and this long shutdown now, it will cause some delays in our recovery programme, but it’s too early to say what the consequences will be in detail.” The upcoming change from Renault to Mercedes for 2021 will be an added work on McLaren, even though FIA has allowed some changes.
Seidl, though, isn’t just concerned for the well-being of McLaren. Quite the opposite, in fact. The British team principal expressed his worry for F1’s whole ecosystem, it being one that was flawed and unsustainable, even before this pandemic began.
He even called for drastic measures such as the freezing of chassis’, and the lowering of the budget cap from $175 million to $100 million, all in an effort to help teams survive the negative economic impacts to come. If F1 fails to do this, he says, teams could be lost.
“The crisis we’re in now is the final wake-up call that a sport which was unhealthy before and not sustainable has now reached a point where we need big changes and drastic changes as well,” said Seidl. “For us the most important thing is we simply make the next big step on the budget cap.
“We think it’s absolutely important now with all the financial losses we will face this year – the magnitude of it still being unknown because so far we don’t actually know when we can go back racing – I think it’s important to first of all combine with all the other measures like freezing the cars (carrying 2020 chassis into 2021) and so on to survive this year.
“It’s also important for our shareholders to show them that the losses you make this year we can somehow compensate them over the next few years. Jean Todt is having – together with Chase – a lot of meetings individually with the teams which are there to make decisions, big decisions, in order to protect the teaming also the future of F1. I would say we’re very happy with what we’re seeing there.
“Of course we would like to see the budget cap as low as possible, we have put out also the number of $100m which is something we would be in favour of. At the same time we understand that obviously it’s a discussion that involves a lot of different parties and a lot of different teams with different sizes at the moment.
“The biggest risk is we lose teams if we don’t take decisive action.” The budget cap talks in continuing behind the scenes but Ferrari and also Red Bull Racing are not sure if they can go below $150 million mark by much because it will result in job loss.
Meanwhile, one proposal made to expedite the process of returning to racing was running two-day F1 weekends, as this less rigorous weekend format allows for a more densely-packed schedule. Many of the members of the motorsport family have expressed their support for the idea, with it not only making the return to racing come sooner, but also meaning that their staff won’t be pushed to the same extent.
Seidl, too, is a believer in the idea, as he stated that it was sensical. “If we end up in a very tight schedule with three or four races per month it will obviously be a challenge especially for our people,” he said. “It definitely makes sense to think about reducing the load on our people so I think it makes sense to discuss going for two-day events simply to allow more rest between events for our people.
“If we can help that by having two-day events or by skipping one test for example next year, in addition to the cost savings that would come from that I think it is definitely something that we need to look into.
“In terms of the commitment from our people I am confident everyone understands the difficult situation we are in and the crisis we are in and I think it will simply be something where everyone will be committed to and will fight it through.”
Apart from these, Seidl spoke about the decisions McLaren took during Australian GP and also the current one to furlough employees, both of which he said was hard but absolute necessary to safeguard their whole team.
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The story was edited by Darshan Chokhani
