After F1 introduced the cost cap for every team, not everyone was impressed as it limited the cost of the development. It set a bandwidth in the cost and was no longer a free-flowing development procedure where big teams could spend as much as they wanted. Soon, it began to be a problem for teams. As prominent teams before the budget cap used to spend endless money on developing their cars. Yet, F1 chief Stefano Domenicali has a solution to this as he held McLaren as a prime example.
Speaking about this, Domenicali said as per Autosprint by Corriere dello Sport, “To those who say that with the budget cap you can’t develop the car, I would respond with the example of McLaren, which has demonstrated that this is not the case.”
Our road to 302 points…#F1 pic.twitter.com/yxY0s4k1OO
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 29, 2023
Admittedly, McLaren’s raise this year can indeed prove to be a prime example. The British team started the year in the worst possible way and had zero points after two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. However, they have turned things around from the Austrian GP.
Following the Austrian GP, Zak brown’s McLaren looked unstoppable, except for Red Bull. The Papayas soon became the team to beat as they gradually came up the ladder to finish the season in P4 with a formidable 306 points. Their rise like a phoenix was indeed a miraculous comeback. However, on the other hand, the cost cap in general is not serving its purpose.
How cost cap failed to close the gap in the field?
The main reason to bring in the cost cap was to reduce the gap between teams on the grid. This was because teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull, who have immense backing used to spend half a billion dollars every year in development.
Compared to them small teams like Haas could barely make it to $100 million. Therefore, it created a huge difference in terms of development and performance. Now, to tackle this, FIA and FOM brought in a set budget for every team to play with.
8️⃣6️⃣0️⃣ points The most ever in a single @F1 season pic.twitter.com/dgVSjxA773
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) November 29, 2023
However, that budget cap is not working believes multiple F1 experts as Red Bull is still way ahead of its competitors. They won 21 out of 22 races and redefined dominance. Speaking on this, David Croft proposed an alternative to this, as per PlanetF1.
On the other hand, Williams’ boss James Vowles talked about how the top teams are already ahead due to their previous expenditures and developments. Therefore, it will not be easy to cut the gap down so soon. Nevertheless, the gap after Red Bull has come down drastically as it became very intense among the rest of the teams on the grid this season. Though, the dominance of Red Bull and Max Verstappen is set to remain till 2026, due to the huge advantage they already have at this stage.
