Scuderia Ferrari reportedly proposes ‘flexible budget cap’ to account for Italy’s labor costs
Before the implementation of the cost cap, Ferrari used to be one of the biggest money spenders in Formula 1.
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Carlos Sainz, Fred Vasseur and Charles Leclerc (via IMAGO)
Since the 2021 season, F1 teams have been operating under the constraint of the cost cap. Moreover, this has reduced from its original size of over $145 million in its debut year and has been reduced by a further $10 million after the 2023 season. However, to combat the issue of labor costs being vastly different in various countries, Ferrari has reportedly proposed a flexible budget cap for the expensive labor costs in Italy.
While F1 teams originate from around the world, the majority of the teams have their bases located in the United Kingdom, as there is sufficient availability of people with skills required for the highly technical F1 jobs. On the other hand, Ferrari remains one of the few teams that entirely operate outside of the United Kingdom, which has made it suffer some peculiar problems in the era of the cost cap.
According to Formula Critica, the Italian squad has proposed the idea of a flexible budget cap in order to combat the high cost of labor in Italy. This could aid the prancing horses to get a level playing field with their rivals, which could in turn also help Sauber and RB, the majority of their F1 operations take outside the borders of Britain as well.
However, with the rivalry between F1 teams, other manufacturers could decide to vote against such a proposal as they also risk losing other privileges that they receive with the system that is already in place. This could infuriate the Maranello-based squad and could demand a bigger implication with the FIA if needed.
Ferrari might have a tough time in the last few rounds of 2024
On the other hand, the prancing horses became the usual pace setters in qualifying and races over the past few weekends. They were also poised to get a chance at the constructor’s title. However, with a massive slump in performance at Singapore, fans feared that the best weekends for Ferrari were behind them.
Subsequently, Carlos Sainz admitted that the SF-24 was behind its terms of pace and required some major upgrades from Maranello to catapult it ahead.
We will try. I think we also need to show progress at the other kinds of circuits like Brazil, Austin, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which are more normal circuits. If we show progress there I think we might have a chance. If on those circuits we’re still behind like we were in places like Spa or Hungary, then it means we have a lot of work to do.
Carlos Sainz said in an interview with F1
Apart from this, the Italian outfit currently trails Red Bull by 34 points. So if they want to at least secure the vice-champion spot, they have to get some upgrades going and leapfrog the Austrian giant in the constructor’s standings.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)