With rumours that Liberty Media, the new owners of Formula 1, are looking to enforce some kind of budget cap on the sport, Scuderia Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne does not believe that restricting costs would work, especially with factory teams on the grid.
Whilst Marchionne understands the need to reduce costs in an expensive sport, he believes limiting the amount a team can spend is not the solution, feeling that progress will be limited as teams will be forced to focus on certain areas of development and overlooking others.
“The interventions there have been up to now, from limitations on the cost of supplying power units to the reduction of wind-tunnel hours, have been totally ineffective,” said Marchionne on Motorsport.com. “The reality is Formula 1 is an extremely expensive sport.
“There are factory teams from Renault and Mercedes, big companies that can concentrate on development in a broader way, and this for costs becomes very dangerous.
“I accept the goal of reducing costs, but much depends on us and how we adapt to these demands. But I don’t believe a budget cap can work. The problem is that with the restrictions, we will end up working in very limited areas to make the car competitive.”
