F1 40 Million Dollar Spending Cap A Good Idea?
The FIA has taken the unprecedented step of unilaterally proposing a 40 million dollar spending cap for the 2010 Formula One season. The teams are not happy.
Formula One has made incredible strides in this offseason of economic discontent. The regulations regarding the design of cars have been radically changed and costs have been significantly brought under control. The fact that the former miserable Honda Team, now known as Brawn GP, is leading the preseason testing is a testament to that.
One gets the feeling the FIA doesn’t know when enough is enough. Led by Max Mosley, he of the whips and professional ladies, the FIA is pushing for a spending cap of 30 million pounds [roughly $42 million dollars] for the 2010 season. The cap is designated as a voluntary choice by the teams. Any team that agrees to the cap can develop their car without restriction.
Formula One needed a swift kick in the rear to get its act together. In many ways, the current world wide economic recession gave the sport just that. Still, it should be noted that the sport is about engineering and technical excellence. Cutting that off at the knees by trying to force thorough a spending budget is not a smart move. If the budget passes, one has to ask what the difference will be between Indy Car and Formula One? There won’t be one. It will be basically the same, but with different names.
So, what is all this really about? Politics, my friend. The teams have created FOTA, which is an association wherein they’ve all agreed to show a unified front to the FIA and commercial rights holders in F1. The key to FOTA is that Ferrari has come on board, which it had not done before due to a big economic benefit it was provided by the commercial rights holders.
The FOTA is a new entity and it is not entirely clear how united the teams are. This spending cap is testing that unity. A team like Ferrari or McLaren will spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on the development of their cars. Teams like Red Bull, Williams and Force India can’t even remotely come close to those figures. To these privateers, a budget cap at $42 million dollars looks pretty good.
Will these small teams stick with the bigger teams in the face of such a measure? That is exactly what the powers in Formula One are trying to find out. If the teams stick together, F1 could be facing a shift in power as the teams begin to demand more of the revenue pie.
Lemmy