Ferrari: “The budget cap doesn’t stop the development of ideas”
Jock Clear, principal performance engineer at Ferrari, asserts that the teams' work in the factories has been just as intense despite the budget cap in Formula 1.
Everyone knows, Formula 1 teams are no longer as free as they were two years ago to develop their cars as they please. The budget cap, introduced last season and lowered this year from $145 million to $140 million, restricts the teams and prevents them from modifying their cars at will. This is the case, despite the 3.1% budget indexation decided in July following inflation, giving teams an additional margin of $4.3 million.
Jock Clear, principal performance engineer at Ferrari, acknowledges that the budget cap, combined with the championship situation, affects the approach to the development of the F1-75 throughout the races.
« The progress of the championship obviously has an impact on pushing for more developments here, and obviously towards the end of the year, you know roughly where your limit is on what you can spend, since your year is capped », said the engineer to Autosport. « Inevitably, you will have to make certain decisions depending on the current situation. »
But the budget cap does not prevent the bubbling of theoretical ideas, with the year 2023 looming on the horizon. We never stop developing. Whether you choose to spend [the budget] on packages that come on the market or not, real brainpower doesn’t cost much », he explains.
Nothing is therefore lost and teams continue to bring new contributions to the car: these will not be implemented right away, but they will undoubtedly manifest themselves at the beginning of the next season, warns Jock Clear.
Next year, the budget ceiling will be lowered once again to 135 million dollars, but it will also benefit from a 3% indexation here as well.
