F1 News

Steiner: Small teams would suffer if budget cap was increased in future

27 December 2019 at 12:52
  • Bevan Youl

Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner has said that smaller teams would suffer if the $175 million budget being introduced in 2021 were to increase in the future, as to bigger teams “it’s not a lot of money”.

In 2021, alongside other regulations changes, a $175m budget will be introduced, limiting the amount that teams can spend on the development of their car, aiming to bring closer competition on track.
 
This means that the big manufacturers and top teams such as Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing will have to reduce their spending by a significant amount.
 
While understanding it will be hard for big teams to reduce their spending Steiner states how hard it would be for a team like Haas if the budget increased going forward.
 
"What it is mainly, we are not going to make the gap bigger," he said as quoted by GPToday.net.
 
"The big teams need to come down quite a bit. Already for them, it's a difficult task to do.
 
“But the best thing to do is not increase the budget because then you make the gap even bigger.
 
"There would be no point in being here if the gap is two seconds.
 
"If you think about it, if you have got a $300 million budget and increase it by 5% for a big company, it's not a lot of money.
 
"But for us, the 5% is 10% and we can't do that. The bigger their budget gets, the bigger the percentage number for us gets.”
 
Steiner does feel the budget cap is the right move initially for the sport to see if it brings closer racing.
 
"It's a very good step in the first place, but we need to see how it works, we need to see all the nuances and go from there,” he added.