"It might be new to some teams to actually have to manage a budget" - McLaren boss gives his take on raising cost cap in F1

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is adamant that the FIA should not allow a higher budget for F1 sprint races in 2022. The American boss feels as though the newly-introduced races don't warrant the additional amount some teams are asking from the FIA.

Teams were given an allowance of $450,000 for taking part in the sprint races, as well as an additional $100,000 for accident damage — all above the $145 million budget cap teams were allotted in 2021.

As per Zak Brown, a number of teams were looking to raise this allowance by a "ridiculous" number to make up for the additional damage that could be incurred during the sprint races. Brown, however, feels there was hardly any damage observed in the three F1 sprint races that took place in 2021, making the original allowance redundant. He said:

“The reality is there was very little damage last year. When this was proposed to us a year ago, they did a report on the damage that was incurred on opening laps, and it was also in the report that showed there was very little damage. And yet a couple of the teams still want to take the opportunity to raise the budget by a ridiculous number, by almost, ‘well, what if I write off a car every race?’ From what I’ve seen, I saw more crashes in practice than I have in the F1 sprint races.”

F1 sprint races were introduced in 2021 as an alternate system of qualifying. 100 km races were held, with the top three being awarded world championship points. The races were held on Saturdays and set the grid for Sundays, replacing the traditional system of qualifying.

The 50-year-old subtly hinted that some teams, possibly Mercedes and Ferrari, have never had to manage their budgets in the sport. This could pose an additional challenge for those teams and help smaller teams bridge the gap and climb up the performance ladder. He said:

“It might be new to some teams to actually have to manage a budget, but I think that’s in the spirit of the sport, so you can certainly match the revenue to the expense and resolve that. But I think the revenue will grow over time, and I think we need to be very careful to be fiscally sustainable, that certain teams take the opportunity to try and raise that all the time. We need to resist that.”

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2022 F1 cars to likely allow closer racing

Despite former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas claiming the new cars feel "roughly the same" in the simulator, the FIA is confident of the aerodynamic redesigns that will feature in the 2022 cars.

According to F1's head of technology Pat Symonds, the new rear wing design will deliberately lose downforce in order to push dirty air out of the path of following cars. These negative effects are desired, as per Symonds, for he believes it will lead to closer racing between F1 cars.

He spoke about the radical new design, saying:

“At the outer edge, there are two strong wake vortices, with which the flow is sucked up from the lower rear area. With this upward movement, clean air from outside can move up to the point of turbulence, from which the following cars then benefit.”

It is still uncertain whether the new regulation changes will truly bridge the gap between drastically different teams such as Red Bull and Haas. With F1 always being at the forefront of marvelous innovation and technology, fans can, however, look forward to a possible change to the current balance of the sport.