F1 confident "a much better period" looming for teams outside 'big three'

Formula 1

F1 confident "a much better period" looming for teams outside 'big three'

Budget cap not the only system designed to help smaller teams

Ian Parkes

Sunday 14 June 2020 16:49

Formula 1 believes its raft of changes will provide the smaller and midfield teams with the financial sustainability they have been desperately seeking.

While the budget cap may have grabbed the headlines of late, there are "an accumulation of changes", according to F1's managing director motorsports Ross Brawn, that should help those teams survive far into the future.

There will be open-source parts, in which numerous items will be standardised to save on R&D costs, along with an aero handicap system whereby a team that finishes first in the championship will have less wind tunnel time compared to the one that is last.

"I'm pretty happy," said Brawn, speaking on the Sky F1 Show.

"We've got the budget cap and a number of standard parts are coming into Formula 1, open-source design parts, so if you design a part you have to put it into a library that other people can access to see if they want to use a part the same as you've made.

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"So there are a lot of equality things going on but we need to keep the competition, and we're keeping the competition in the areas that are of most interest to the fans, so aerodynamics, there's still some differentiation on the engine side, the suspension.

"So we've got those areas the fans can engage with, they can understand." For those "areas which don't matter [to the fans]", and which are generally only more relevant to those teams that have the funds" they have now been "neutralised".

Brawn added: "This adjustment in the aerodynamic capacity of the teams, depending on where they finish in the championship is a gentle step in the right direction.

"You still have to do a great job to win a Formula 1 race. We always want to have a meritocracy in Formula 1, and a great team that finishes first in the world championship may have a little less aerodynamic capacity than a team at the back of the grid.

"But if that team at the back of the grid doesn't use that extra resource sensibly, then it's wasted."

Of particular relevance, and a topic on which the smaller teams have campaigned for years and will come into force next year, is a greater distribution of the prize money.

"The prize money was very heavily biased towards the top teams, and as of next year, the midfield teams will be getting a much bigger slice of the pie, and that will make a good midfield team financially sustainable," assessed Brawn.

"With a modest amount of sponsorship, the budget cap, more prize money, you've got a much more viable case for a good midfield team to be economically viable and sustainable.

"It [change] has come on many fronts but I think we are going to be entering a much better period for the smaller and midfield teams."

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