Ferrari's team principal Mattia Binotto has revealed an overall $2.92 million cost that the team has had to incur over the damage its cars have sustained in the first 10 races of the 2021 F1 season. This is a critical element as there is a $145 million budget cap for the teams and top teams like Ferrari are used to spend upwards of $300 million which means they are running right at the edge of the budget.
"If I look at the damage we had so far since the very first race we had in Bahrain up to the last race in Hungary, if I count all damages we have on track, it's more than 2.5 million Euros. That's showing how significant they are, and it's only half of the season," said the Swiss-Italian engineer.
During the Hungarian GP, the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll crashed into Charles Leclerc's Ferrari which ended his race and caused his engine to be damaged irreparably which has peeved the Italian team. In the light of this, Mattia Binotto had indicated that there should be a system in place when damage is caused by an opponent the offending driver's team should foot the bill.
"These are overall damages. Sometimes we can damage ourselves. We've got some contingency in our final budget gap which I think we need to have because you never know the surprises we have from now to the end and crashes and damage," he explained.
Leclerc has crashed twice this season
This issue has flared up even more because Max Verstappen's Red Bull was first torpedoed by Lewis Hamilton at the British GP and then during the Hungarian GP, his teammate Valtteri Bottas crashed into Lando Norris knocking out Perez in the other Red Bull, while a crippled Norris in his McLaren crashed into Verstappen's Red Bull hobbling his race.
Red Bull's Helmut Marko revealed that it cost the team $1.8 million at the British GP alone. But likely with the Perez crash and the Verstappen engine write off and the additional damage to his floor and barge board at the Hungaroring, the likely amount for Red Bull could be higher than that of Ferrari.
"There's been a lot of discussions and still as well discussion ongoing. If there is a crash, there is a guilty driver and you are not [at fault] if you have been damaged, should that be exempt from the budget cap? I think it's certainly an important point. The reason why I mentioned the 2.5 is to show that overall the damages can be significant and so, should we consider a different type of regulation in those cases? Certainly, there is merit for it [but] I think that certainly there are no obvious solutions. But I think something that no doubt we will discuss with the FIA, Formula 1 and all the other teams in the next coming weeks, and try possibly to address it if there is any solution for the future," said the Ferrari boss.
