Ross Brawn: Introduce cost control flexibly

As Ross Brawn, Motor Sports Director of Liberty Media, recalls, “ you only need to look at the situation Force India finds itself in to understand how crucial this is. »

Cost control remains one of the major areas of work for the new owners of the company. F1, in particular to prevent certain “private” teams independent of major manufacturers from finding themselves in the same situation which led to the takeover of the Indo-British team by a consortium of investors led by Lawrence Stroll.

The manager emphasizes, however, that arriving at a perfect solution will remain complicated, due to the power of the manufacturers, who must maintain a certain position in the hierarchy.

“To be clear, we want the big guys to always be the big names in sport, we don't want a system or a situation where there are no big goals to aim for, says Ross Brawn. And at the moment, these targets are Ferrari, Mercedes et Red Bull.

However, the gap between these three teams and the rest of the grid is too big. There are two divisions in Formula 1, and we want to stop that, we want to introduce constraints on the amount of resources you can use.

And this involves both an economic perspective and a technical perspective. The financial burden on teams is not sustainable in the long term and we are taking steps to limit a team's expenses. »

What Liberty Media seeks to achieve is therefore rather to reduce the significant gaps. Ross Brawn even proclaims some figures to support his point. “The cap will not be achievable for all teams, but it will reduce the differential between teams who are at that limit and those who are not.

At the moment, I think a top team spends twice what a mid-pack team spends and that if we reduce this margin to around 10 or 20%, the mid-table teams have something to hope for. There will always be an aura around large teams, but a smaller team doing great work will be able to perform. »

First effects from 2019

Ross Brawn also indicates that he wants to test certain measures from 2019 before seeing cost controls integrated into the regulations in 2021, a year which will also see the arrival of new technical regulations.

“The good news is that with the FIA ​​and in consultation with the teams, we are making good progress on economic initiatives, specifies the former technical director of Ferrari. Work on the cost capping mechanism is progressing well.

At the moment, we seek to introduce it flexibly, with “dry” tests (to minimize potential harmful effects) in 2019 and 2020, then in the regulations in 2021. I would say that, apart from a few last minute discussions, everything is nearing finalization.

We hope that cost control will make smaller teams more viable in the long term, as they will be better placed to show sponsors and investors that they have a chance of getting on the podium and, in the right circumstances, winning a race.

And that’s so important for a team that aspires to become great. At the moment, the gap is too big. It is almost impossible for a team to bridge this gap. »

Several teams have been campaigning for cost control for a long time, notably Williams Martini Racing, which will lose its title sponsor in 2019, as will the contribution of the Stroll family.