F1 | Ferrari, Mekies: “With the budget cap less developments during the year”

The budget cap is a stringent constraint for F1 teams, with resources that must be allocated with great care, so as not to exceed the 140 million dollar ceiling set by the regulation. The cap on expenses will obviously concern all aspects relating to the single-seater, including updates during the current season.

Laurent Mekies, the racing director of Ferrari, in this respect is certain that due to the budget cap the teams will bring much fewer developments to the track during the season, compared to other years. No more evo packages that overturn the values ​​on the pitch? We don't know, but we could witness a very different F1, far from the one that a few years ago made us see single-seaters revolutionized after a handful of races, often in the month of May when the European season began.

“I don't want to make comparisons with 2021, because it was a transition year without developments, but if we think about past years, 2018, 2019, I expect we will see much fewer developments on single-seaters - Mekies' words to Autosport - In those years the top teams brought innovations to almost every race, this currently seems incompatible with the expense cap. We have a pre-established budget and we must also allocate it to developments, this is a great challenge. Each department will have its own portfolio and will have to do the maximum based on the resources allocated. Ok I have this, I can do three aerodynamic developments, for example. Obviously, if during testing a team realizes that it has more problems in one department than another then it could allocate more resources to solve that problem, but in any case you have to establish them first."