BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — At this time last year there was no way all 10 Formula One team would unanimously agreed to the raft of regulation changes that will be utilized from now through 2025.
But the harsh reality of the COVID-19 crisis rammed home the fact that F-1 could not continue down its path of massive spending; favoring the big teams financially; near unfettered technical advancement; and a bias against the smaller teams.
That is why the World Motor Sport Council rubber-stamped the rules reforms that had been hammered out by the FIA, Liberty Media/Formula One and the 10 teams.
“It’s a major step forward for F-1 and motorsports’ sustainability,” noted FIA president Jean Todt.
Formula One has been part of the motorsports landscape since 1950 and Grand Prix racing has been around since 1906. It has survived the World Wars, the Great Depression and other disasters. So while F-1 could continue at an almost club racing level in the future, these rules are aimed at keeping it at an elite but sensible level.
Introducing F-1’s first budget cap for 2021 and then lowering it in subsequent years is a vital step toward sustainability.
It is insane that the big three teams — Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull — need to spend more than $300 million a year in order to race two cars 21 times. In one way or another all three were against any sort of budget capping, but they eventually agreed to a $175 million cap in 2021.
But now, with worldwide financial woes, all 10 teams have agreed to reduce that to $145 million in 2021, $140 million for 2022 and $135 million for 2023-’25. That is based on a 21-race season and it will be reduced or increased by $1 million depending if there are 20 or 22 races.
There are several exemptions to the cap numbers, including driver salaries, the salaries of the three highest-paid employees, PR, power units and more. So the teams will still be able to spend, spend and spend some more — or some of them will.
Changes to the technical regulations include freezing a large list of components between 2020 and 2021. The chassis, gearbox, a number of mechanical components and impact structures are among the items on the list. A token system has been devised to permit a very limited number of modifications in accordance to the competitors’ specific needs. Power unit upgrades will also be limited this year.
These stipulations will prevent the big teams from spending masses of money developing their 2020 cars during this shortened season, and it means both the big and small teams will save money by not having to create cars for 2021.
Further savings for this year include reducing aerodynamic testing — wind tunnels and computational fluid dynamics — and power unit bench testing.
Starting in 2021, the amount of aerodynamic testing teams will be allowed to do will be doled out on a sliding scale. The team that finished first in the 2020 constructors’ championship will get the least amount of time and the team that finished 10th will get the most time. The order will be reset based on the team’s positions halfway through the season. It is F-1’s first handicapping system.
“Formula One wins,” McLaren Racing’s CEO Zak Brown said of all the rule changes, including the reduced budget cap. “This is a crucially important moment for our sport. F-1 has been financially unsustainable for some time and inaction would have risked the future of F-1 and its participants, who are to be commended for resolving this issue collectively and determinedly.”
Just how difficult things are financially was brought home by the news that McLaren Group laid off 1,200 people — which is 25 percent of its workforce. Included in that number were about 70 people from McLaren’s F-1 team, which numbers 800. Most of the 1,200 were involved in the production of the McLaren super cars and sales have slumped since the virus struck.
However, McLaren is still going to have to cut its F-1 budget to get down to $145 million next year.
All of this does not mean sudden parity between the big teams and the midfield teams, but the latter know how to be small, lean and efficient, and they know how to operate a team and get results without having to throw money at it.
All in all, F-1 will never be the same again, but at the same time things will still remain true to the DNA spirit of Formula One.