With confirmation that we’ll only have 18 cars on the grid in Austin this weekend much of the chatter around Formula 1 has been to do with the costs of running a team. People are asking: is F1 in crisis?
Every time serious discussion about putting a cap on spending is raised one of the bigger teams, usually Ferrari or Red Bull, threatens to throw its toys out of the cot in disgust. Clearly, F1 doesn’t want to lose one (or more) of its biggest drawcards and we’re left with a perennial problem; the haves keep winning, which in itself is nothing new, but the have nots keep folding.
The introduction of new regulations this year hasn’t helped matters much. In a bid to highlght the issues at the back of the grid Caterham, Force India, Marussia and Sauber have written to FIA President and former Scuderia Ferrari boss, Jean Todt, saying teams now need around $120 million per year just to stay afloat.
Sauber, usually a team able to compete well with limited funds, hasn’t scored a championship point all year and is currently coming tenth out of 11 teams in the constructors’ title race.
The cost breakdown provided to Todt and revealed by Autosport is as follows:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Windtunnel/CFD facilities | $18.5 million |
| Chassis production/manufacturing | $20 million |
| Hybrid power system | $28 million |
| Gearbox and hydraulics | $5 million |
| Electronics | $1.95 million |
| Fuel and lubricants | $1.5 million |
| Tyres | $1.8 million |
| Salaries (not including drivers) | $20 million |
| IT | $3 million |
| HR and professional services | $1.5 million |
| Utilities and factory maintenance | $2 million |
| Travel and trackside facilities | $12 million |
| Freight | $5 million |
| TOTAL | $120.25 million |
As well as driver salaries, other items not included in the above list are: building leases, hospitality, marketing and media. Obviously, teams like Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull are spending a lot more than that, while Caterham and Marussia are (or were) spending a lot less.
No form of motorsport, no matter how good it should be, is any good if teams can’t afford to race.
[Source: Autosport+]
2 replies on “How much does it cost to run a Formula 1 team?”
Yes, F1 is in deep crisis.
The solution – copy everything from the current LMP2 rules which have led to record field sizes in the class.
1. Allow customer chassis from 2015 onwards with separate team championships for works teams and privateers.
2. Standardise the compartment size, mountings and interfaces for the power unit from 2016 (including transmission) so that, for example, a Ferrari chassis can be used with a Honda power unit.
3. Fix the price of the cars and power units to prevent an arms race.
4. Require updates be passed from the works team to the customer team at the next event after their introduction on a Saturday/Sunday. If it’s not passed on, the works team would be forced to go back to the previous homologated version of the car.
5. De-restrict Friday running from the weekend tyre allocation and season power/gearbox allocation.
6. Ban live telemetry transmission apart from a select set of safety-related sensors, but still let the teams download the data on a SD card after the session is over.
Take the R&D out of the budget and the smaller teams will be able to compete, and the pay drivers will be replaced by the best drivers.
Having watched F1 for many many years now, this appears to be the biggest crisis I have seen. I am not sure if the rise of internet media has simply shed light on issues that perhaps were as prevalent back then as they appear now. Or that F1 is genuinely in dire straights.
Either way, I feel that unless F1 is prepared to change and look at what made the sport good in years gone by (privateers, no restrictions on cars per team, engines not frozen etc), then F1 will rot away like the Roman empire.
I am not even going to bother with qualifying for the USGP (and I usually watch every event I can). Since it looks like only 17 cars will bother to run in the various sessions.