Mercedes and Red Bull to spend big before 2021 budget cap

Formula 1

Mercedes and Red Bull to spend big before 2021 budget cap

Next year is going to be an expensive season.

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 29 October 2019 12:00

Toto Wolff and Christian Horner have explained that, with the Formula 1 budget cap set to be introduced in 2021, both Mercedes and Red Bull will use the year in between now and then to spend big before they are financially restricted.

Liberty Media and the FIA are introducing regulation changes in two years in an attempt to level the playing field in the sport, with one of the alterations set to be a set budget for every team.

However, in the short-term this may be counterproductive to their aim as the elite, richer teams are planning on using all the resources at their disposal for 2020 before they are no longer able to, which will further increase the performance gap to the midfield.

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"It is clear that the big teams are the ones that are very restricted from 2021 onwards", the Mercedes team principal said at the Mexican Grand Prix.

"We need to look at our structures, change process and maybe also the organisation in a way to adapt to these new challenges, which will hit us hard in 2021 because we will be doing things differently to the way we are doing them today.

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“This is why it’s clear in 2020 that we have to adapt and change and all this change is costly and will be happening in 2020, so 2020 will be a year of more financial expenditure in order to get ready for 2021."

Horner agrees, saying it is natural the teams would spend as much as possible before they are restricted.

"My feeling is that a budget cap is ultimately a sensible thing for Formula 1", the Red Bull boss admitted.

"But, the interim period of 2020 with the current regulations we have as teams gear up for 2021 with unrestricted spend makes it a very expensive year."

"I think it will create a broader gap between the teams going into 2021 as those teams with more resource will simply spend more time in the research and development phase before the cars hit the track at the beginning of ’21."