Former Red Bull employee shares shocking details about the dark side of the F1 cost cap

Former Red Bull employee Blake Hinsey has pulled back the curtain on the dark side of the F1 cost cap that was first implemented in 2021. As part of the cost cap, every team on the grid has a specific amount that it has to adhere to in terms of expense, and if it goes beyond that, it gets penalized.

The cost cap was introduced with the objective of trying to make F1 as a sport a bit more sustainable for the teams that are taking part in it. As was the case in the past, some teams had deeper pockets and hence, could use that money to fund their racing program.

On one side, there is the positive aspect where most, if not all, the teams (including Red Bull) are in strong financial health. Not only that, these teams have seen their valuations shoot up as expenses have been cut and revenues have increased.

There is, however, a sad reality to all of this as well, where the cost cap means limiting the team's expenditure. The expenditure also includes employee salaries and hence, the number of employees as well that the teams can keep.

In what was a startling revelation from Hinsey, former Red Bull performance engineer, on social media, the maximum salary for a race engineer in F1 would be less than what he was making last year as a part-time performance engineer in WEC on an LMDh team. His post on X read:

"Want to know how fu*ked the cost cap in Formula 1 is? People in the sport don't talk about this because they can't. So I will :) Just had a loose conversation with a recruiter about a F1 race engineer gig. Their MAXIMUM salary was less than I was making last year as a part-time performance engineer in WEC on a LMDh team."

He added:

"Why aren't the team bosses advocating harder for increased cost cap to accommodate increased cost of living and inflation? Oh yeah... because the teams that are profitable, it's likely the bosses and shareholders can pocket a chunk of whatever they don't spend. Tag your favorite F1 journalist and try to get them to put this question forward in the next press conference - I am sure they can phrase it better than I just did."

The post highlighted one of the biggest side-effects of the cost cap where the money is now so concentrated in the hands of a few at the top. For the engineer talents, sticking to F1 is not an attractive option.

Blake Hinsey's history of working in F1 with Red Bull and Force India

Blake Hinsey first entered the F1 paddock as a performance engineer for Paul di Resta at Force India. When Scott was replaced by Sergio Perez, Hinsey partnered with him before he eventually moved to Red Bull.

At Red Bull, Hinsey has worked with Max Verstappen and other drivers before he left the team at the advent of the F1 cost cap. Since then, he's built his social profile with the moniker 'Brrrake F1' as he made his name by sharing data insights on his YouTube channel about the season.

Hinsey has amassed a following of close to 50K followers on X and close to 100K followers on Instagram while his YouTube channel has 128K subscribers.