How does cost cap take account of accident costs?
Williams and Mercedes have to rebuild their cars buildings new parts for them.
Are these expenses part of the cost cap?
It’s more a problem for the teams on the edge of the cap, Mercedes, Redbull, Ferrari and Renault. Their normal operation is just below the norm, extra spending would push them beyond. HAAS has more of a cashflow problem after big shunts.El Scorchio wrote: ↑18 Apr 2021, 23:23Very interesting, that. I'd have thought manufacture of like for like replacement parts should be exempt.
Now we know why Haas moved on from both Grosjean and Magnussen....
But those teams are not brushing against the cost cap now. Damage is and still will be expensive. For the top teams it’s pulling ressources from somewhere else, for teams not yet on the cost cap it’s not enough budget.Hoffman900 wrote: ↑18 Apr 2021, 23:41The frustrating part is that it penalizes the teams that are usually more midpack. While today's incident involved Mercedes, odds are cars in the midfield will be around other cars more often, and the risk is higher.
It's a gamble. A few write offs a year, and you'll be near it. If that's the case, might have just been better to spend the money and be a little more up front.Jolle wrote: ↑18 Apr 2021, 23:48But those teams are not brushing against the cost cap now. Damage is and still will be expensive. For the top teams it’s pulling ressources from somewhere else, for teams not yet on the cost cap it’s not enough budget.Hoffman900 wrote: ↑18 Apr 2021, 23:41The frustrating part is that it penalizes the teams that are usually more midpack. While today's incident involved Mercedes, odds are cars in the midfield will be around other cars more often, and the risk is higher.
It’s also playing a bit more the victim as Toto did. It’s not that they hire extra personal to replenish their stock of spares or that the raw material costs millions. More likely that a chassis change has to be pulled forward and possibly that chassis has to do some extra races.Hoffman900 wrote: ↑18 Apr 2021, 23:51It's a gamble. A few write offs a year, and you'll be near it. If that's the case, might have just been better to spend the money and be a little more up front.Jolle wrote: ↑18 Apr 2021, 23:48But those teams are not brushing against the cost cap now. Damage is and still will be expensive. For the top teams it’s pulling ressources from somewhere else, for teams not yet on the cost cap it’s not enough budget.Hoffman900 wrote: ↑18 Apr 2021, 23:41The frustrating part is that it penalizes the teams that are usually more midpack. While today's incident involved Mercedes, odds are cars in the midfield will be around other cars more often, and the risk is higher.
It’s probably a non issue for haas for development this year as they haven’t spent much just enough for the new rule changes and will be fully focused on ‘22....DiogoBrand wrote: ↑19 Apr 2021, 00:01Is Haas gonna have any money left for development after covering all the crashes from Mazepin?
Ideally you would want that teams can always make new parts, provided they are identical to the previous iteration, without the cap. But yeah, the world is not ideal in that sense. I don't really see an easy way out.El Scorchio wrote: ↑19 Apr 2021, 14:35So essentially if a Haas, for example, wipes out Verstappen and completely wrecks his chassis through no fault of his own, then Red Bull are heavily financially penalised. That seems very unfair.
I'm sure Wolff is just making a bit of a meal of it to prove a point about the budget cap, and the actual impact will be negligible, but this does seem a bit ill thought out as a rule.