Best get it started here. Red Bull bringing further weight saving updates, Marko claims they'll be ''at our optimal weight''. Not sure if that's Red Bull's minimum possible weight or FIA minimum weight. Ferrari will also bring further upgrades. I believe both Sainz and Charles have the new engine now already. Aston Martin is rumoured to come with an entire b spec car. Meanwhile, Merceds contemplates going back to their normal sidepod car.
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-guerra-sviluppi-red-bull-ha-gia-speso-il-75-del-budget/10302698/
I have heard nothing about Merc changing their sidepods. They have yet to integrate the ice skate blade solution Ferrari and Red Bull are running on their floors, but if I had to guess I would say Merc won't do that as they would rather alter the suspension in such a way that a hard stop solution, which is what the ice skate in essence is, does not have to be used. I believe Aldo Costa is being tapped to give assistance with the issue as well. Also, anyone else hear that Mercedes are trying to implement machine learning? What's the future of F1 going to be? Whoever has the most computing power wins? Just hilarious where that road leads, and the conversation feeble humans will be forced to have. AND note both Ferrari and Mercedes are taking a filming day
Aldo Costa is at Dallara so highly unlikely he will rejoin Merc. The solution for the Mercs’ problems go beyond the skates which, BTW, Ferrari tested at the pre-season Bahrain tests—and subsequently post-Imola—but there’s no evidence they were used in a race. This tells me that these skates are not the holy grail. The Merc, I think, is the modern day Lotus 80–showing good results in the wind tunnel with an extreme solution, but that doesn’t translate to on-track performance because of its sensitivity to ride height and pitch—typical of “peaky” aero design. Whatever solution they come up with that will allow them to run lower will inevitably be less powerful in terms of DF-generating performance to go and get that usability they need. They’ve also compromised the weight distribution by carving out pockets in the chassis to bury their supposedly clever cooling installation so not sure what they can do about that.
Mercedes won't rule out ditching F1 sidepod design after Spanish GP Mercedes has not ruled out abandoning its ‘zero-pod’ concept as it faces a crunch decision on the future of its Formula 1 car after the Spanish Grand Prix. Image Unavailable, Please Login https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-not-discounting-ditching-zero-pod-concept-after-spanish-gp/10302171/
According to several articles: www.gpblog.com scuderiafans.com Motorsport.com RedBull have spent 75% of their annual total budget. IF this is true, we could see RedBull wain and falter during the mid-season while Ferrari and possibly Mercedes gain in performance since both of those teams have spent less in their annual budget currently after 5 races.
This is all based on the writings by Franco Nugnes (not the greatest source on the planet) who wrote "Someone is saying that RBR spend 75% of their budget". So an unreliable source quoting an unnamed source quoting numbers that he has no idea are true or not.
Here's what Binotto actually said regarding RBR's spend: Basically he's stating the obvious, RBR spend more than Ferrari...considering Ferrari so far have brought very little (different floor, wings) and RBR did a little bit more than that...it stands to reason that RBR has spend more. Nugnes fished the rest out his ass in order to write an article.
Nugnes is not just some idiot like Buxton or similars. He's very knowledgeable, very well conected, so he isn't just making stuff up. I listen to him, Giorgio Piola and Roberto every other week, and they are all very, very good and well informed. I agree 75% sound a lot, but i can tell you he didn't make that up. I doubt that's the correct number, but you can be sure he heard it somewhere.
The question is... did he hear from listening to guys like me talking about F1 at lunch with my buddies or did someone in RB say..."we're in deep trouble... we've already spent 75% of our budget" and was it from someone in Accounting or was it the intern who brings everyone sandwiches? If it's not the latter... you wouldn't believe the crap that me and my cohorts come up with regarding F1. I'm a master at stating pure unadulterated conjecture as fact. We all are.
The sidepod-less Mercedes was a shocker when it was unveiled, I figured it would be great or terrible. Given that RUS keeps finishing top 5 with it, it's not really that terrible, it's just that MB can't be perfect after 7 years of dominating. No idea why HAM isn't performing as well, we've talked about him enough.
They have built 4 chassis and a crapload of body and suspension parts. Lined up engine and MGU-xs, battery packs, electronics, for the entire season and allocated all of the air freight and passengers to get to all the races. So, yes, they very well may have spent this much money. Leaving them only $35M for development. Entire IndyCar teams run on less budget than this.
Aston Martin will bring “half a new car” to the Spanish Grand Prix, according to Auto Motor und Sport’s Michael Schmidt. AMuS’s Schmidt reports Aston Martin engineers have told him there will be big changes to the AMR22 at the Barcelona race, so much so they will be “very visible”. The car could look more like the championship-leading Ferrari F1-75 with a slimmer rear and wide sidepods. Schmidt said: “Maybe it will be a Ferrari copy, let’s see.”
With the top teams having several hundreds of staff (many with 6 figures salary), I guess the payroll is the largest portion of the budget.
Exactly. I don't doubt he's heard it, but I (seriously) doubt the accuracy or it. Ferrari and Red Bull have done more or less run the same amount of updates so far, the only difference is that Red Bull's updates have all been successful and are on their car currently, whereas Ferrari has run updates and reverted back to other spec. Whether that means the part tested was wrong or just not applicable to whatever track they're running at, is besides the point: That money has been spend all the same. I think I'm right in saying that Mercedes so far has brought out the most updates, several floors, wings, sidepods and other bits. Curious how RBR is supposedly nearly through their budget already but Mercedes can keep throwing updates at the car and silence...Aston Martin can bring an entire B spec car to Spain and apparently be fine? Crashes count towards the budget too, Sainz has had plenty so far...Nugnes has provided only pub talk speculation with no facts or research behind it, it seems.
Payroll is a BIG part of the budget. But I expect a majority of the personnel are above the 6 figure threshold. But, then again; who is actually paying them has not been disclosed. For example: Is the Mercedes engine group being paid by Mercedes, or though the sales of the engines ? Is Dallara being paid with the arrival of Haas CNC machines ? {potentially costing Hass only 40% of what Dallara would charge if paid in cash} Until the sanitizing light of day is cast over the entire money flow, we will never know.
The Budget “cap” is a grey area nice idea. The minute it’s challenged in a dispute the enforcement will fall apart. Good Legal and financial minds will ensure this! The idea is a nice consoling sales pitch. End it and allow competition and innovation. F1 will need it for batteries lol.
Yep. I really don't know how the FIA intends to police it all. I think just about any team that can spend more than allowed will have some clever tricks.
