The key questions facing Formula 1 and the teams

Formula 1

The key questions facing Formula 1 and the teams

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl opens up on the future of the sport and his organisation

Ian Parkes

Thursday 16 April 2020 09:55 Updated: 10:54

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl delivered an open and honest assessment of the current situation facing both his team and Formula 1 in general.

Seidl spent an hour answering a range of tough questions from a select group of F1 media, so here, GPFans highlights 10 of the key areas on which Seidl was quizzed.

1. When do you expect the factory F1 team to be back and working in a normalised situation? To be honest, and it's the same for all of us, it's too difficult to predict the moment when we will get back to normal life in different countries, and in the UK as well, that then allows us to go back to work. Then I think we will have to wait, to see what that would actually look like, this exit strategy, from the lockdown.

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2. Considering the measures already taken to protect the teams in the months to come, do you think the response of Formula 1 and the FIA is commensurate with the enormity of the crisis, or should it go further? Is this a potential tipping point for F1? The crisis we are in now is the final wake-up call for a sport that was unhealthy before and not sustainable, and which has now reached a point where we need big, drastic changes. For us, the most important thing is we make the next big step on the budget cap because we think it's absolutely important due to the financial losses we will face this year, with the magnitude of it unknown because so far we don't know when we can go back racing.

3. Is this an opportunity to try new formats and ideas, and would McLaren support that? We are definitely open to trying new things. At the same time, it's also important not to rush into too many changes now, to take our time to make the right decisions. There are things like a race weekend format of two days, especially when you have three or four races in a row, which makes sense.

4. Will there be a before and after Covid-19? We definitely know we will lose a lot of money with some races definitely not happening. Of course, there is a pessimistic scenario where we don't have any races this year which will cause a big financial impact. We simply need to wait at the moment to see what the consequences will be.

5. How should F1 decide how and when to go racing again? A very difficult topic, and it will depend on a lot of different aspects. First of all, the most important thing is to protect our people. We definitely can't go back racing until we know our people are safe. Then I think it will simply depend on the guidelines of our home countries, first of all, the travel guidelines, and the guidelines we get for our daily life because we need to see if that allows us to travel out and back into our home countries. We also need to wait for what the different countries are deciding, whether races should happen. Also, you need to see what the promoters decide, especially with the changes in dates for lots of races. The promoters need to be up for it, and it needs to make sense from a commercial point of view for them. We can only go back racing once we have certainty that there is protective equipment and tests for people, that this is all in place, and available to people who need it, that we are not the ones burning these tests or equipment just to go back racing. There is a big desire from people, from fans, especially in this lockdown situation, that sports events happen again, even if it's just on tv, but there are a lot of different aspects that need to be considered.

6. Any positives or benefits for McLaren from this situation? Thinking of our own bubble, I have to hope that if we make the right decision now, under the leadership of the FIA and Formula 1, that F1 in the future can be more sustainable, and in a better, more healthy shape compared to where it has been in previous years, which should help to improve the sport and the show, which is to the benefit of all of us.

7. How long a delay for races before McLaren faces financial difficulty, and it becomes a serious problem? Not just for us, for all the teams in the pitlane, it [the current situation] is already a serious problem because we definitely know we will lose income, and as we all know, a major part of financing the Formula 1 teams come from the revenues. For us as McLaren, we are putting all measures in place which we think are necessary to get through this crisis. Something that's helping us a lot is the agreement we have, with the other teams and the FIA, to be on shutdown at the moment because maximum saving, for an organisation like us, is obviously happening when we are not going to work. The decisions we are making, in terms of freezing the cars, will also help save costs for this year, and we are optimistic that all these measures we are putting in place at the moment will help is to survive this crisis.

8. Do you fear teams will disappear or quit during this crisis? It's not just a fear, it's reality, a big risk that we could lose teams because of this crisis. We don't know what the impact will be, when we will get back to racing again. Of course, we all hope we can do as many races as possible. It's important now to make big decisions, to make another big step in the level of the budget cap, which doesn't help us for this year. This year we need other short-term measures, as I've said before, like freezing the cars etcetera, to save costs. At least it gives an outlook to everyone taking part in Formula 1, that the sport will be a lot more healthy and sustainable in the future, which hopefully leads to all the teams surviving this crisis.

9. Can F1 as a sport survive? Will there still be an F1 in 2021 and beyond? I don't see any signs that Formula 1 will not exist next year. The biggest risk that I see is that we will lose teams if we don't take decisive actions now. It's very important we put all these actions in place that we have discussed in previous weeks, such as the freezing of the cars, the extension of the shutdown to ensure we have maximum money-saving this year, for all teams. And then it's very important to simply have a lower budget cap to ensure we have a positive outlook for everyone taking part in Formula 1 in the future, that we can be part of a sport that is healthy and sustainable from the financial side.

10. Using this year's car for next year, does that put the team at a disadvantage given the need to adapt the Mercedes power unit? It's a change of plan now for us because we had planned to integrate the Mercedes power unit into the new car with the 2021 regulations. Obviously it's a different situation now. For sure, there will be restrictions in terms of how good we can integrate this power unit into the current car. We have a great relationship with the FIA, that they will monitor very closely that we are only allowed to do the changes that are absolutely necessary to install the Mercedes power unit. They will monitor closely that we don't touch any of the areas in the surroundings of the power unit that will give us, let's say, additional performance gains, which we fully understand and agree to.