Ferrari had to halt development to avoid exceeding the budget
Ferrari made its return to the front ranks this season, with the Scuderia finally getting back on track after two particularly difficult seasons in 2020 and 2021. However, the Italian team had a more difficult second half of the season, struggling to fight for victory with Mercedes and Red Bull. One of the reasons for this drop in performance is the lack of development, a point on which Mattia Binotto spoke.
The new technical regulations introduced this season in Formula 1 encourage teams to carry out a lot of development in order to extract the maximum performance from their cars. While most teams have mastered this exercise, the budget cap is an important constraint when they want to make improvements to their cars, even hindering Ferrari’s development.
“It certainly wasn’t a choice we made voluntarily. We simply ran out of money at a certain point,” stated Mattia Binotto to Auto Motor und Sport.
According to the director of the Scuderia Ferrari, Mercedes is the team that has made the most progress among the top teams and has the best package since the United States Grand Prix. One of the latest improvements by the German team allowed them to lose 5 kilograms, a significant advantage compared to Ferrari, which has stopped its development.
Budget cap management is essential and any violation is heavily sanctioned. Red Bull is one of the first teams to have received a penalty regarding this measure. The Austrian team is fined €7 million and its wind tunnel development time is reduced by 10% compared to other teams. Therefore, Ferrari has halted its development as it could not afford the additional cost generated by the production of new parts.
