Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne and Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost are at odds over the possible reconsideration of a budget cap.
Formula One’s new ownership Liberty Media are believed to be looking into the idea as part of a number of proposals to reinvent the sport once their takeover is completed early next year.
The budget cap concept is not new in F1. It was set to be introduced in 2010 and was a major goal for former FIA president Max Mosley, however, opposition from the big manufacturers meant it was scrapped.
That decision was one of the main reasons the three teams who joined the grid six years ago, Virgin Racing (now Manor), HRT and Team Lotus (later Caterham) struggled for competitiveness and later just to survive with two going under.
Ferrari’s Marchionne, while still relatively new to his post, maintains the old view of the Italian marque saying the implementation of a limit on expenditure would have no impact on the issue of cutting costs.
“The reality is Formula 1 is an extremely expensive sport,” he told Motorsport.com. “There are factory teams from Renault and Mercedes, big companies that can concentrate on development in a broader way, and this for costs becomes very dangerous.
“I accept the goal of reducing costs, but much depends on us and how we adapt to these demands. But I don’t believe a budget cap can work.
“When I look at old reports of what we have spent in the last 10 years, and even further back, I deduce that Ferrari has never held back when it comes to spending.
“Then if the budget is used well or badly, I don’t know. Despite all these interventions by the FIA to try and limit spending, the teams have found other ways to spend,” he claimed.
“This is the old problem for all those who try and impose limits on car development: if areas are left open, spending concentrates in this area. If I look at the last four of five years, we haven’t saved a euro.
“We have simply redistributed our spending to other areas. In principle it’s very noble, but then the effect never gives the necessary results.”
It has long been the argument that policing a budget cap would be very difficult for the FIA as teams, especially manufacturers, would simply be more careful in how they account for expenditure and potentially shift funds into different areas to avoid it being detected.
Toro Rosso’s Tost disagrees, however, believing the manufacturers are simply trying to maintain their current advantage over independent teams and that, done correctly, a budget cap would be effective.
“The big teams will cry foul that there is no way to control costs but this is nonsense. Over at Toro Rosso, I know how much each screw costs,” he said.
“Many claim you cannot control development – nonsense as well. Give each team, for example, 150 million Euros with the FIA watching over it, if somebody didn’t want to present their expenditures, it could be pretty easy: the FIA could charge this team twice the average price of the part in question
“And then you’ll see how fast all invoices would be filed with the FIA.”
Of course, the smaller budget teams, of which Toro Rosso is one despite being bankrolled by Red Bull, continue to press the equality argument questioning how it is top teams receive big money from the commercial rights holder and can use their financial clout to maintain what is perceived as an unfair advantage.
Tost claimed some top teams were spending 450 million Euros each year while those at the back were counting every cent but he also believes, sooner rather than later, the manufacturers will come to their senses.
“Even the manufacturers cannot accept sums like this forever. It’s not feasible. We spent way too much money on F1,” he added.
