After Red Bull, Ferrari Is at Risk of Exceeding $135,000,000 Cost Cap

Sabyasachi Biswas | 11/07/2023
After Red Bull, Ferrari Is at Risk of Exceeding $135,000,000 Cost Cap

Nearing the end of the 2022 F1 season, FIA penalized Red Bull for breaching the 2021 cost cap. Now, coming into 2023 and not learning from it, Business F1 reported that Ferrari is also on the verge of crossing the budget cap limit this season.

The cost cap allocated to every team this year was $135,000,000. This was reduced from $140 million to that of last year. However, the FIA has allowed teams to have minor exceptions with $1.2 million to $1.8 million per race after 21 races due to the additional races being added on the calendar.

Ferrari, interestingly, is speculated to breach the budget cap despite diverting their resources to the Haas F1 team [who takes the engine from Ferrari] and WEC [Ferrari takes part in the World Endurance Championship too].

2022 was a mere save, 2023 might not

The Prancing Horse could barely comply with the 2022 budget cap when it stayed within the $140 million budget cap. However, it was done by judicious use of cost diversion to the Haas F1 project and WEC development program.

Even if 2022 was a near miss, 2023 will not go down as such unless a miracle happens. According to the Maranello team’s chairman John Elkann, as reported by Business F1, the budget cap puts adverse effects on a team’s budget if the developments made in an F1 team can not be optimized.

Apart from this, the FIA, along with F1, has introduced an engine cap as well, which will only increase in 2026, following the new regulation rolls out. The current regulation allows only $95 million to be spent on engine manufacturing and development. So keeping up with a $230 million budget while designing a car and producing an engine is a tough task, but Ferrari needs to remain clean to avoid further problems in their troubled times.

Can Ferrari come out clean?

Keeping aside the budget cap, the Italian team hasn’t been doing well this season. Despite having huge expectations from Tifosi, the team is currently experiencing a frosty relationship between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, added to the usual weakness in strategy.

Furthermore, they do not have the edge that Red Bull has even after they breached the cost cap. As FIA fined the Austrian team $7 million and 10% reduced time in developments, so far, they are still unbeaten.

Even though the defending champions have a limited development scope, they can still bank on the mighty RB19 they built. However, it’s not the same in the case of the Maranello-based team, as SF-23 still has enormous catch-up to do.

On one side, an urgent need for rapid development, and on the other, the need to save costs; Scuderia Ferrari is in deep waters. It’ll be interesting to see if the Prancing Horse can come out against all odds by the end of the season.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
carlos sainz Charles Leclerc

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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