This week becomes clear what equal opportunities for F1 teams will look like

The plan modified by the FIA is ready for the teams to vote. According to Auto Motor und Sport, the teams will have 48 hours to think carefully about their vote. After this vote, the decision will be made. Due to the flexible arrangement around taking decisions because of the coronavirus, a majority is already enough to accept the proposal. Previously there had to be unanimity.

The points on which the FIA has been working since the last meeting is the step-by-step reduction of the amount of the budget ceiling. Each year, a little less will be allowed to be spent. Next year, $145 million will be allowed. This is already 30 million less than the initial plan. In 2022 the costs will not exceed 140 million and 135 million will be reserved for the next three years.

Where does the money go to?

The 145 million that the teams will be allowed to spend next year will consist of three major cost items. No less than twenty exceptions have been made to the costs that fall under the budget ceiling, such as drivers' salaries, costs for the power source and the marketing budget. What does remain are the salaries of other staff, all travel expenses and thirdly the development budget.

AMuS claims that a team has lost about 60 million euros in participating in twenty Grands Prix. This includes travel expenses and all the equipment that has to be brought along, including motorhomes, etc. The staff that has to pay is also included. Sixty men may be brought along and most teams do this as well.  What remains is a budget of around eighty million to carry out the development during the year.

Finally equality in F1

The budget ceiling is of course aimed at more equality between the different teams. Larger teams like Mercedes and Ferrari seemed to have unlimited budgets compared to the other teams. In any case, they had much more to develop compared to the rest.

Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer explains: "Some years we only had a hundred million in total to spend. The fixed costs were the same for everyone then. Including salaries, we only had three million left to develop."

"On the other hand, the larger teams had at least fifty million to spend on this. In this perspective, our P4 will be an even bigger victory in 2016 as in 2017".

The question remains if equality really is achieved. From what Szafnauer says it can be said that still the less wealthy teams will have to struggle to raise even enough money to get to the budgetcap of 145 million.