F1 News
Formula 1 and teams agree on sprint race finances
- GPblog.com
This year, several sprint races will be organised to see if they can make Formula 1 even more exciting. Several drivers have expressed their thoughts about this, but there are also drivers who are in favour of trying it out. The introduction of such races requires some adjustments in the race weekend but also causes extra costs for the teams who are not very happy with it. That is now solved.
Financial compensation
At least, Motorsport.com reports from various sources that Formula 1 and the teams have reached an agreement. The point is that with three sprint races you actually get three extra races in the season and that has to be compensated financially. In view of the budget cap, these costs would not fit into the total calculation and small teams were afraid that larger teams would use a possible exception for extra performance developments.
In the past weeks, there have been discussions about this and the outcome is a financial proposal the teams are happy with. Specific details are unfortunately not known, but the message is that the teams will receive around half a million dollars as compensation for the extra three races. The budget cap will also be lifted by the same amount to give teams flexibility for any unforeseen expenses that arise from sprint races.
If there is serious damage to the cars during sprint races, there is financial scope to deal with that without teams being penalised by the budget cap. With that, the financial story has been discussed, approved and settled. All that is left are the minimum details which are expected to be finalised before the Grand Prix at Imola, which ties in with Stefano Domenicali's earlier words on the subject.