McLaren’s Andrea Seidl says the team will attempt to match the top three teams in Formula 1 by running to the limit of the budget cap.
As part of the revamp in regulations in 2021, a budget cap has been put in place of $175 million in a bid to reduce costs and lessen the stronghold of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Seidl told Motorsport.com: “The target for us is clearly to run at the budget cap.“
“There’s a clear commitment that we will run at the budget cap because obviously that’s the only chance to be able again to fight the big ones; you need to be on a level playing field in terms of budget.”
McLaren took their first podium in five years at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix through Carlos Sainz Jr. and finished a relatively comfortable fourth place in the constructors’ standings with 145 points.
One year away from the budget cap, there is a fear that the top teams will spend even more this season to prepare themselves for 2021. Seidl says McLaren will not do this despite being one of the teams that will likely benefit from the budget cap.
“You need to be realistic to what is achievable,” Seidl added. “Even if someone will give us for next year a hundred million more, you first need to be able to digest that and to put a structure in place that actually can produce more output in this short period of time.
“This is why I’m not too worried about ’20, also not too worried about the quotes I’m reading at the moment that it will be the most expensive year ever for the top three teams.
“In the end, there’s a limitation placed on the CFD side, on the wind tunnel side, so there’s only so much you can do, and aero will also be in the future the key performance differentiator.
“They will have a head start, simply because of where they are right now, because they do a better job they have better methodologies in place, they have better processes in place and so on.”
Formula 1 testing begins in 19 February with the Australian Grand Prix weekend starting in 13-15 March.
