With $15 Million Already Spent on Damages, Who Leads the Destructors’ Championship in 2024?

The battle for the 2024 Constructors’ championship has heated up in the last few race weekends. But this season has also seen a lot of drama in terms of drivers crashing out while trying to muscle the latest generation of Formula 1 cars on the limit. As things stand, the 10 teams have already wracked up a cumulative bill of $15,000,000 in terms of damage repairs.

A keen Formula 1 fan on Reddit has compiled the team-wise repair bill incurred in 2024 so far. Sergio Perez, Alex Albon, and Daniel Ricciardo lead the World Destructors’ Championship after the Monaco Grand Prix.

Perez has wracked up a bill of a whopping $2,452,000, while Albon and Ricciardo have cost their teams $2,040,750 and $1,222,000, respectively. Putting the cost of repairs caused by both the drivers, Williams currently sits atop the table with a total repair bill of almost $3 million.

Sergio Perez crashed out of the Monaco GP last weekend on lap 1. His hefty meeting with the barriers skyrocketed him to the top of the Destructors’ championship. Williams, on the other hand, are leading the standings, owing to Alex Albon’s three crashes – the costliest one of them coming at the 2024 Australian GP.

Sergio Perez’s Monaco GP crash could cost Red Bull and Max Verstappen the title

In the cost cap era, the teams are further constrained by drivers crashing and damaging their cars. This is because any expense that is incurred by the team to fix the car is deducted from their season-long development budget.

Out of Williams and Red Bull, the latter is running the risk of losing the most because of their current situation. The RB20 has failed to live up to the lofty standards of domination that the RB19 had set last year.

This means that it will be crucial for Red Bull to constantly develop their car in a bid to retain the slim advantage they hold over their rivals. Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko even categorized Perez’s shunt as a big handicap for them going ahead in the season.

Any more crashes by either Perez or Max Verstappen could force the team to cancel their planned upgrades, especially in the latter half of the season. This could be the trump card the likes of Ferrari and McLaren were hoping for to jump Red Bull in the championship this year.