Ban on virtual garages: 'A very bad idea' and 'ridiculous'

Liberty Media's regulation changes which would see the banning of virtual garages in F1 continues to meet serious opposition from teams, none more so than Force India COO Otmar Szafnauer, who says that the proposal has nothing to do with cost.

Liberty Media have suggested that banning virtual garages is part of a cost-cutting exercise to allow teams to meet any cost cap they introduce, plus reduce a potential barrier of entry for new teams wishing to join the sport.

Virtual garages are set up to allow members of the garage to work alongside the team on race weekends without being present at the track, in addition to the fact that teams are limited to 60 on-track employees within the garage on racedays.

Speaking to RaceFans, Szafnauer rebuked cost suggestions from Liberty because, simply, the costs have already been absorbed and, in fact, teams actually currently make money from their use.

He said: "Here’s the thing: What cost? We have the virtual garage already and so does everyone else. So what cost? That cost is sunk. Getting rid of it is only going to cost everyone. We already have it.”

“The people that we employ for that virtual garage are people that we already employ. Andrew Greeen is the tecnical director. [He] isn’t employed to sit in the virtual garage, he’s employed as a technical director.

“But when he doesn’t travel he’s there. It’s just the opposite. We run two strategists, one per car. One of them doesn’t travel, he’s in the virtual garage. Now if they get rid of that we’ll have them travel. It costs you more.”

Szafnauer's opinion took a more cynical tone, and suggested that the teams who generate revenue from independent sponsorship of the virtual garages does not sit well with the owners.

He added: “We have sponsorship for it. We’d lose that too. So then you’ve got to ask yourself if there is no cost benefit for getting rid of the virtual garage are they [Liberty] asking us to get rid of it because we compete with them on sponsorship?”