Preses izdevums

It Wouldn't Matter

04.01.2020 - I don't think MRC Formula 1 landscape would change much if reset would happen. The current picture is more or less the result of mangers abilities.

Sure, minor changes would happen as some of the owners are reasonably new and even if they are managing their team very well, they might be still near the bottom as they have started there. Of course, the same goes the other way around with a bad management in a good teams. However, those teams will eventually take they proper position, it will just take a lot more time.


You deeper dive into finances is also way too simplistic. You are forgetting that team owners can decide to issue new team shares and increase teams’ budget. As most of you know this can be done two times per season. The first share issue is available to all teams. The maximum a team can receive is 3 million. The second share issue is available to all teams, except the best earning team of the season. The maximum a team can receive is 60% of the difference between income from sponsors, drivers, voting points and rewards of the requesting team and best earning team during the whole season.

With that in mind here are the real income numbers:
1. Red Bull 71.067.119 €
2. McLaren 69.613.800 €
3. Porsche 65.401.763 €
4. Audi 64.417.875 €
5. Sempre Senna 64.011.470 €
6. BMW 62.786.067 €
7. Mercedes 60.956.225 €
8. WAR 60.313.536 €
9. Ford 59.616.878 €
10. Jordan 59.316.341 €
11. Williams 57.679.596 €
12. Ferrari 57.624.589 €
13. Trabant 55.551.989 €
14. Skoda 54.555.192 €
15. Koenigsegg LKR 51.229.098 €

However, even with this the picture is far from clear as you have too look at team’s expenses if you want to paint the full picture. Even if you add expenses for employee salaries and facilities maintenance the picture is far from full. You also have take into the account commercial budget of the team, as team image has a big influence on how much money teams get from sponsors. You also have to know that a big difference can come from voting points donations. If McLaren got full 3 million from voting points the difference to Red Bull would be only 200.000€ for season 34.


So, in my opinion the current system is broken because it allows badly run teams to fight for wins. With years MRC Formula 1 has become too easy. One would expect that the game would become more complex with time, not less ... It is very hard for a team manager to make a real difference now.
New engine and supplier rules and other changes in part development have all allowed for car to be closer to each other. Random nature of qualifications is only a symptom of those changes and it only highlights the deeper problem.


This is the main reason why it’s so hard (or impossible as some say) to close the gap to Red Bull (and McLaren). Red Bull will always be able to fight with tanking teams. Other teams that want to dethrone them will not and the gap grows back ...