American team boss Guenther Steiner has added another voice to the controversy surrounding Formula One's new - and reduced - budget limit
The controversy over Formula One's revamped spending limit continues to rage on. After a real polarization on the issue on the grid - with the top teams in favor of an extraordinary increase in the budget ceiling, while the teams in the middle of the pack are against such a resolution - it was Haas' turn to add a voice to the debate.
The argument from Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, and McLaren is that with Russia invading Ukraine and inflation rising due to the war, some teams would not be able to comply with the spending determination as they would have to make severe cuts to stay within the rule. On the other hand, teams such as Alpine, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, and now Haas, point out that there is concern that the top squads are asking for an increase in the budget ceiling just to maintain high levels of investment.
Increasing the spending ceiling, therefore, would contribute to the inequality of grid power - something F1 aims to combat, with this being precisely the central motif of the new technical era the category faces in 2022.
"(Grid) is getting mixed up. As I've always said, in the short term, nothing will change. But in the medium to long term, I think the middle platoon will get even closer. So we shouldn't change the budget limit now and increase it, because that's really fine for the races in the middle of the peloton," Guenther Steiner said.
"You don't know who is the 'best of the rest'. If we continue with this spending cap and the current rules, the middle teams will be closer to the top teams. We have to comply (with the budget cap). I don't have a job if I tell my boss that I won't make it to the end of the season. This is my job. We have to do it because if you don't finish the season, the next year you don't make any money," the Haas boss said.
As part of the new Formula One technical regulations, the category has put in place a new spending cap for 2022. Reduced to the amount of US$140 million (approximately R$673 million at current exchange rates), about US$5 million less compared to 2021.
Recently, Red Bull - the most active voice in the 'pro-amendment' movement -, represented by Christian Horner, reiterated that "seven teams would lose the last four races of the year" if the FIA (International Automobile Federation) does not heed the top teams' requests. This statement, of course, elicited a response from Steiner.
The Haas boss, as is tradition, joked about Horner's statement and even offered a solution supported by Mercedes and McLaren: the establishment of a temporary budget cap to offset rising freight and utility costs, while maintaining the integrity of the current cap in the long term.
"I think there are nine teams that would be very happy with that (Red Bull losing races), because that would mean they wouldn't make any money next year and we could all share. For sure, Ferrari will be happy if they don't make it to the last four races! My solution is: I need to make it work, one way or another, and I think most team bosses have the same instructions," Steiner said.
"We just take the cost of transportation, I would say it costs three million more this year than last year. And then raise the spending limit maybe by three million equally, because that's also easy to police - everything is done by FOM (Formula One Management)," he added. "So you can't just say 'ah, I spent more', because FOM sends the bill. Everything is very transparent. And, say, next year if the cost of transportation goes down again, it becomes 'price per kilo. It's very easy to monitor and control," the Haas boss finally declared.