F1 budget slow down

It's obvious from any number of motor race forums that even the most dyed-in-the-wool viewers are questioning if the decision makers know what to do to improve what is a very one-sided top end.

US-based Liberty Media acquired Formula 1 in September 2016 from Delta Copco, the parent company of Formula 1, for $4.4b obviously with an expectation to make money.

While there have been some changes under their watch, for the past 12 months there have been ongoing meetings with stakeholders as to what direction to take, especially in the area of costs for the ten teams to stay in the sport.

In 2014 Formula 1 made the most significant change to the sport since the introduction of the championship in 1950 with the introduction of hybrid technology.

While the main power source was a 1.6 litre, V6 turbocharged engine the addition of hybrid power saw power figures in excess of 800 horsepower despite the small capacity engine.

Not surprisingly team budgets escalated rapidly and unless you were one of the three manufacturer teams (Ferrari, Mercedes Benz and Renault) plus the heavily-sponsored Red Bull Honda team, the chance of success was zero.

In 2018, the budget figure for the Mercedes Benz team was US$508m with Ferrari close behind on $485m and Red Bull on $395m.

Analysing results for the past five-and-a-half years the theory that the bigger budget teams will always win most of the races certainly holds true.

Since 2014 there have been 107 F1 races and only three teams have won those races with Mercedes Benz on 81, Ferrari on 14 and Red Bull on 12.

In an effort to haul in costs a budget cap process will be introduced from 2021 with all teams limited to $175m per year not including driver salaries and marketing and promotion.

How that will be monitored is unknown at this stage but Formula 1 boss Chase Carey is confident they have the tools to achieve the proposal which took 12 months to formulate.

It still has to be ratified by the World Motor Sport Council and next year there will be a dry run to ensure the processes and procedures are well in place to be fully implemented for 2021.

To help achieve that budget cap objective there will be significant changes to sporting and technical rules and regulations for 2021.

They were due to be announced by July 1 but will be delayed till October so the major teams do not gain an advantage over the smaller teams and secondly to allow more time to hammer out the finer details of the proposal.

First and foremost the power units must be cheaper, simpler, louder, have more power, be road relevant and reduce the stupid necessity of grid penalties.

There will be some standardised elements but car differentiation must remain a core value and the cars must be more raceable to increase overtaking opportunities and close up the fields.

Engineering technology must remain a cornerstone but drivers' skill must be the predominant factor in the performance of the car.

Today's Formula 1 car is a technical tour de force which has almost countless sensors in place that are monitored in milliseconds by a large group of highly-paid and highly-credentialled boffins.

Every time the car leaves the garage you will find them and their counterparts back at home base glued to monitors checking a whole range of data such as engine performance, tyre pressures, suspension loads, brake temperatures, differential settings, fuel consumption and countless others.

It raises the question of how much this detracts from the drivers' skill level particularly when in the past teenagers from lower categories such as Formula 3, with no on track experience in a Formula 1 car, have on designated test days been able to achieve comparable times with the regular driver.

There are only two pedals with steering-mounted paddles to change gears in the automated and programmed gearbox and while not for one moment would I suggest it's easy to drive, it's night and day from the past.

Since 2014 only six drivers from the three teams have won a grand prix with Lewis Hamilton on 56, Nico Rosberg on 20, Sebastien Vettel on 13, Daniel Ricciardo on 7, Max Verstappen on 5, Valtteri Bottas on 5 and Kimi Raikkonen on 1.

Considering the were 321 podium spots available (107x3) these six have taken 264 with Hamilton on 86, Vettel on 53, Rosberg on 46, Ricciardo on 29, Raikkonen on 26 and Verstappen on 24.

No wonder race fans are losing interest with such lopsided results, reinforcing an essential need for change to produce the brilliant racing we see from Moto GP.

Having said all that I will sit in my lounge chair on Sunday night hoping we get a great race in France. Go Daniel.