The most spectacular accident of the season was signed by Mick Schumacher in the classification of Saudi Arabia, with the Haas destroyed between the walls of Jeddah Corniche and the pilot evacuated to the hospital as a precaution, fortunately without physical damage. He missed that race because there wasn’t enough time to fix the mess. The second most spectacular impact of 2022 was carried out by the same driver last Sunday and his car broke in two, again, in front of the tec-pro barriers of the Pool, in Monaco. He says that he lost the car in the previous curve “by ten centimeters” and then the brutal blow was unleashed from which, again, he emerged unharmed. Modern Formula 1 cars are extremely safe… but also very expensive: It is estimated that the bill for each of these incidents will be around one million euros for the North American team’s accounts. And that, in times of the spending ceiling, can be a drama.
In conversation with one of the ten main team of paddock, “before the spending ceiling (implemented from 2021) F1 was about looking for sponsors to pay for your improvements; since the spending ceiling this has completely changed.” You have to be efficient when developing the car and that inevitably includes not having to manufacture the same part two or three times. “Any team, from the best to the worst, has to stop the evolutions in the face of such a big accident. Because if you plan to take something to Baku and you crash in Monaco, now in the factory you would have to produce another specification of the Monaco package first. “warns this authoritative source. In these circumstances, every euro counts and it is no coincidence that Alonso himself apologized to Alpine after a slight touch that damaged the nose of his car in Monte Carlo qualifying. Because in Enstone they will have to make another wing the same, with the cost that it entails.
In 2022, the spending ceiling for each team is 140 million dollars, about 130 million euros. It does not include the salaries of the pilots or the three highest paid people in the workforce, nor the marketing departments, and the power unit factories that Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Honda have are also excluded. The strongest teams have pushed in recent weeks to try to raise that cap, blaming inflation and rising logistics costs. The fine print is that they are the only ones who can afford to increase games, and would most likely spend it on car upgrades. Meanwhile, the small ones defend that the figure should not be modified, which in any case should be gradually reduced in the coming years. However, this regulation will bring debates, there is even talk of limiting the salary that pilots can receive.
The first point gets stuck
Back to Mick’s case, Guenther Steiner, boss of Haas, was not at all happy after the Monaco GP: “We have seen what has happened. It is not very satisfying to have a big accident again. We have to see how we progress from from this”. The young driver, 23, son of the Kaiser and member of the Ferrari academy, has not yet scored his first point in Formula 1 after 28 grand prix. This was logical in 2021, with the worst car on the grid and Mazepin as a partner. But since Magnussen returned in 2022 to fill the Russian’s vacancy, and with the VF-22 becoming one of the most interesting cars in the midfield, expectations around Schumacher are rising. In Germany, every Sunday they wait for the first top-10 to arrive. The Dane has 15 points and is tenth in the championship with the other Haas, even though he arrived in Bahrain out of shape, as he himself acknowledged. The highest paid drivers on the grid are not always the most expensive.