F1 | Renault, Abiteboul: “The budget cap will be a distraction for the top teams”

Among the most discussed topics for the future of Formula 1 is the budget cap, the cost ceiling that many teams would like to see become a reality in the coming years in order to put a limit on the expenses and increasingly high budgets of the top teams.

Among the teams looking with greater confidence at the budget cup there is undoubtedly Renault, an ambitious team that would like to fight for world titles but with a lower budget than other teams in the same category. The French team is aware that at the moment there is a big difference in terms of budget and resources compared to top teams such as Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, but believes that this approach could be the right path especially at a time when Liberty Media and the Federation will impose a limit on costs in the coming years: “We know that we have a big deficit in terms of resources compared to the teams we want to fight with” – said Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director of Renault -. “But we also know that things like the budget cap will have an impact at some point. It makes no sense to invest resources knowing that we will have to reduce them in the near future. In some ways it would be almost unprofessional to do that, to hire people we might have to lose in the future.”

Undoubtedly the budget cap will be a problem for the top teams who have very large budgets and in fact there are several discussions to try to find a meeting point on what to introduce into this cost cap. The criticisms range from possible layoffs due to staff reductions, to the use of facilities and the wind tunnel. Abiteboul believes this could become a distraction for the high-end teams, but it could be an advantage for Renault: “We are certainly at the tipping point where F1 expects the manufacturers to be, so we have to accept staying in this situation. So I would say our disadvantage will be the resources we have in the next couple of years. But our advantage will be that we won't have any distractions about having to think about the future. We can concentrate on the track and not have to think about an alternative plan which will be a big distraction both for the management of the teams bigger than us. There are pros and cons, I'm not complaining. We have a plan and we will carry it out” concluded the Managing Director of the transalpine team.