We have a cost cap, and apparently these new rules are not open to negotiation, Liberty are saying "take it or leave it" The budget ceiling is set at $ 150 million. Except for salaries for drivers and executives, and spending on marketing. The Formula 1 teams will work in two stages. They want to give the big teams the chance to shrink their staffing levels over a period of two years. According to Liberty's plans, all the teams are to get so much money that they only have to find $ 30 million in sponsorship money to reach the budget ceiling. Ferrari collects as a team with the greatest history and as a motor manufacturer twice and should come to a bonus of about 50 million dollars. That's about half of the special payment they are currently receiving. The engine manufacturers receive a compensation of $ 10 million. The extra money can not be used by the factory teams to make their cars faster. This prevents the cost brake. The special payment goes as a profit in the books. Via AMuS Interesting times!
Or they'll race elsewhere... Ferrari are not financially efficient, they just spend a lot more money than most. I think they'll be seriously effected by the cap.
The "vision" given is exceptionally vague. I hope this is on purpose and that there's more behind the scenes as you can't run a sport with such iffy rules. It's a very nice picture, but until they bring it in I'm far from convinced.
I read its vague because of the bad reaction they got last time when they announced engine rules. They are keeping it behind closed doors with the teams (and future parties) and away from the media. Lewis Hamilton has also said his contract hangs on what these rules are so Im sure he will know more before committing to a team that will pull out if it doesnt satisfy them..
it's not just the aero, it's the electronic aids, they eliminate the silly little mistakes. Get rid of engine and pedal mapping and we'll start seeing them again and then we'll start seeing some more on-track action.
It's a pretty normal consensus-building approach... "Here's where we want to end up. We're asking all the teams for ideas and we're open to anything that delivers this vision". Trouble is, it works best when everyone broadly agrees with the vision (or, at least nobody wants to sabotage it). So I'm sure it's also part of a charm offensive, to build support before the lady in red starts her inevitable tantrums. The aspiration and the vagueness make it impossible for anyone to object at this stage. It brings more people into Liberty's corner before the inevitable arguments later. It will be interesting to see how the flouncing horse (and Bernie in the background) handle the battles to come.
Wages for driver and senior personnel aren't included in the cost cap. So teams with Pay Drivers only need to raise say £140m, whilst teams paying their drivers can happily spend £200m+. I think it's a good approach, and probably means we'll see drivers wages increase significantly. I also wonder if we'll see drivers employing their own staff, to take it off the team budget. That's not extra money they can spend over anyone else though, essentially it's profit.
So, whatever car you turn up in at the first race will be the same as what you finish with as a cost cap will effectively means the end of upgrades, though I'm sure both mercedes and Ferrari can easily do it for £1 a race whilst a department within their conglomerate 'unconnected with the race team' spends £200m developing aerodynamics for their 'family saloon'.
It ain't gonna work. You can't force close racing through silly budget caps that you can't enforce. The only way to help is to reward teams fairly. I don't care who they are, if you finish 4th you shouldn't get more than the ones in 1st. Give everyone a fair share of the pie and you might find more teams can afford to build a ballistic fast car.