Liberty planning F1 budget cap

still in the evaluation stages.

whether or not they implement a budget cap, Liberty seems to understand that the disparity between the fastest cars and slowest cars is completely OTT and a major turn off for racing fans. I think it's great news that they acknowledge the elephant in the room and try to find a solution. it may even give talented young drivers without $$$ a chance to get a F1 drive

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/liberty-planning-f1-budget-cap-report-860066/?s=1

sounds %%%% just like last time, this isn't a same spec series. its nigh impossible to police and it'll turn the big teams away.

now a budget cap on how much they can sell the power train to other teams and a rule saying it has to be this year specs and they have to get any upgrades in a reasonable time would be a very good measure.

if budget turns fans a way its probably not the sport for them, there are far bigger issues with boring tracks, drs , aero rules, lack of testing, lack of devlopment (but thankfully the crap tokens that has held everyone back to catch merc are gone) price of weekend tickets at most races meaning fans cant afford to go see it live, lack of social media and fan engagement etc.

That money is not doing anything good for fans. It is just wasted on competing on technology.

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Gosh F1 that is meant to be a technological devlopment series is competing on technology, omg the shock.

A budget cap needs to be done properly to work, but is in the best interests of the teams and the sport as a whole. You'd have to be blind to not see that the money side of the sport *must* change.

F1 teams at the sharp end have been using crazy, exotic and dangerous materials in various parts of the cars and these have slowly been banned, but by explicitly banning certain materials they leave the door open for them to spend even more money on even more exotic stuff. McLaren were at the sharp end of development of beryllium oxides in engine components and other incredibly exotic stuff in exhaust pipes and so on.

If teams are allowed to spend ever-increasing sums chasing infinitesimal gains, the back of the grid are basically no-hopers due to the way F1 allocates prize money.

A suggestion could be one of either a cost cap, much lighter technical regulation and severe penalties for breaches (exclusion from the WDC/WCC for a start) or perhaps a two-tier formula - one tier with unlimited budgets but very, very tight technical regulation designed to advance technology in particular areas (eg efficiency, done by restricting maximum fuel loads as an example) and the other tier would have free reign technically (within reason) but a relatively low budget cap.

It is completely clear that something has to change to allow innovation to be at the forefront and not simply who can write the biggest cheques.

A budget cap wouldn't work as that woudn't allow teams to catch up due to lack of resources if someone pulled out a double diffuser trick again, so you'd still have some teams racing away at the end with others peeing money up the wall and getting nowhere. Force India used to be a backmarker squad who are punching well above their weight, recently McLaren have had a huge Honda budget and were scrapping for points with STR using an old Ferrari engine and not much cash.

Balance out the "prize money" so teams can afford a basic entry to build a car and attend all races.

I'd rather see a proper distribution of prize money than a budget cap. Give them something to aim for!

Steeps said:

A budget cap wouldn't work as that woudn't allow teams to catch up due to lack of resources if someone pulled out a double diffuser trick again, so you'd still have some teams racing away at the end with others peeing money up the wall and getting nowhere. Force India used to be a backmarker squad who are punching well above their weight, recently McLaren have had a huge Honda budget and were scrapping for points with STR using an old Ferrari engine and not much cash.

Balance out the "prize money" so teams can afford a basic entry to build a car and attend all races.

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Not a valid argument for me! At the moment, if Ferrari decided to spend £500m there's basically only Merc and possibly RBR who could contemplate spending to catch them up. ANY of the teams could invent something like a double diffuser but obviously teams couldn't copy it if they'd spent all their money. That's better than the top teams winning by bankrupting the smaller teams.

Yeah good luck with that budget cap, worked so well before with previous attempts As mentioned its easier to spread the prize money a bit more.

Just going to the shop for popcorn, be right back.

A budget cap cannot work in F1. It's not like football where the teams are a single entity, any one team in F1 can be made up of multiple private or public companies.

Say Ferrari are spending £2m on fasteners. Fiat just offer the fastener company exclusive contract for fasteners on their new Punto. Now the fastener company only charge Ferrari £500,00. That's an obvious example but they'd be stuff going on that's no so obvious.

Unless each subsidiary, parent, supplier etc.. has FIA appointed forensic accountants deployed, it would be impossible.