Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner fears that some Formula 1 teams will have to miss the final races of the season if budget limits are not revised upwards.
In 2022, each team can spend no more than $140 million. Christian Horner believes that, given high inflation, some teams will not be able to meet this amount, and then skipping races will be the only way not to exceed the limit.
Christian Horner «Seven teams will probably have to miss the final four races of the season to meet the budget constraints this year. We are talking not only about the leaders, but also about the teams in the middle of the peloton, which have problems due to rising inflation.
The FIA needs to solve this problem, and I know that they are serious about this issue. Electricity bills, cost of living – all costs are rising exponentially. Freight costs have quadrupled and we can’t control it.”
Horner’s position is supported by Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren. Teams Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Haas and Williams voted against a proposal to adjust the budget for inflation, calculated on the basis of data from the International Monetary Fund. In part, they opposed, as they are concerned that the leading teams are offering to increase budgets in order to keep the cost of refining the car high.
Alpine CEO Otmar Szafnauer believes that there is no need to increase budgets: “We adopted budgets in advance, and put a little inflation into them. I do not support the idea of increasing budgets.
Yes, transportation costs have gone up from 2.5 million to 3.5 million. [за сезон], but if your budget for the development of the car is twenty million, can you cut it down to seventeen million so as not to exceed the budget limit? You can.
However, in this case, you will limit your ability to develop the machine. If you have the money, it’s much easier to go to the FIA and lobby for higher costs to keep the budget for car improvements.”