What could an F1 team afford by spending $1-2m above the cost cap?
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Red Bull are guilty of a “minoౠr” oversp🌺end of the 2021 $145m budget, estimated at $1-2m. B🃏ut what exactly could they afford with that extra money?
‘A new floor or adapted wing’ - $300,000
Ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton claimed that extra spending from Mercedes could have changed the🐻 outcome of the 2021 title race.
Mercedes’ last major upgrade arrived at the British Grand Prix in July, while Red Bull continued to develop up until the controversial title finale at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“If we had, if we spent $300,000 on a new floor or an adapted wing it would have changed the outcome of the championship, naturally, because we would have been in bette𝕴r competition in the next race you had it on,” Hamilton told Sky.
A new chassis - around $1m
F1 chassis are notoriously expensive, even more s♔o when they have to replace them.
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mick Schumacher has crashed heavily on three occas�꧑�ions during F1 2022.
The German shunted his Haas in Saudi Ara༒bia, Monaco and more recently, in Japan.
For a team like Haas, who are unders𒆙tood to be well under the co⛎st cap, a new chassis isn’t a cheap investment.
Steiner said after Schumacher’s crash in𒅌 Jeddah: “Between gearbox, the whole bodywork is gone, radiator ducts are gone, so it’s between half a million and a million I wou♒ld say.”
Crash damage - more than $1.8m
Cras🌄h damage can be a big explanation to why a team would potentially breach the cost cap, even if the damage is out of their control.
Let’s take 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen as an example.
He crashed heavily late on in Baku after his tyres failed, through no faulꦆt of his own.
Verstappen was crashed out of the F1 British Gꦍrand Prix by Hamilton, costing Red Bull around $1.8m.
The Dutchman (and teammate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Sergio Perez) sustained significant damage in Hungary, caused by Mercedes’ 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Valtteri Bottas.
Both incidents were caused by Merc�💦�edes drivers, but Red Bull would have been forced to cover the costs.
Verstappen collided wi꧋th Hamilton again at Monza, althou♌gh on this occasion, it was arguably his own fault.
While teams ha𓂃ve to factor this into their yearly budgets, some crashes are completely av🐻oidable, and in Verstappen’s case, were mostly not his fault.
Lightweight chassis - around $2m
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed that introducing a new lightweight chassis would have put the team $2m above the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:F1 cost cap.
Red Bไull were expected to introduce their own lightweight chassis during the latter part of this season, but decided against it.
Wolff admitted in Singapore that Mercedes simply couldn’t afford to d🌃o so.
“We haven't produced lig🥀htweight parts for the car in order to bring us down from a double digit overweight because we simply haven't got the money. So we need to do it for next year's car,” Wolff𒀰 explained.
“We can't homologate a lightweight chassis and bring it in, because it's $2m more that we will be over the cap. So you can see every spend more 💞has a perfor🌟mance advantage.”
Upgrades for the whole season - $2-4 million
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto confirmed that $4m would cover the team’s “development parts for a𝐆n entire season.”
So, for half a season, it’s in the region of $2m.
Given that a minor breach is anywhere under $7.25m, there’ꦦs no surprise that the likes of Binotto and Wolff are unhappy with Red Bu🐲ll’s breach.
“It’s important to understand that even if it is $4m, which falls into the category of what is considered a minor breach, $4m is not minor,” Binotto said in🍒 Singapo🍌re.
“For us, $4m represents the development parts for an entire season. Four millioওn means 70 people in a technical department who can come up with and produce solutions that could be worth up to half a second a lap.
“So even if we are♔ looking at something considered a minor breach it’s not peanuts.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of oꦿur unbiased reporting.
