Formula 1
F1 teams looking to "exploit" cost cap extras, says Alpine
Alpine Formula 1 boss Otmar Szafnauer says that top teams are gaining an advantage within the cost cap regulations by juggling staff across different projects.
Adam Cooper
Edited: Jan 25, 2023, 5:39 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The big players have other racing programmes or non-motorsport technology departments into which they have moved personnel as they’ve downsized to meet the requirements of the cap.
However, those people can be switched back to F1 as and when needed, and their time allocated to the cap.
Szafnauer suggests that while Alpine benefited initially from already being the right size to hit the cap, and thus not having to shred personnel, bigger rivals have been quick to learn how to work more effectively within the rules by juggling staff around.
"I think when everyone's the right size, you lose that little bit,” he said. “I think what some of the other teams are now doing, the bigger teams, is they're looking to exploit or have a better understanding of where there's some loopholes or some organisational changes you can make to actually stuff more people under that budget cap. And we're not there yet.
“They're there already, they're looking at, yeah, I got rid of 100 people, but now I want to hire them back. Because I was able to under that budget cap, find spots for them, where they either don't count as a whole person or they do some marketing stuff or whatever it is, or they work on a boat for some of the time.
“And we're not quite there yet. So I think that advantage of being right at the beginning does dissipate."
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal, Alpine F1, in the team principals Press Conference
Photo by: FIA Pool
Szafnauer said that Alpine does have a technology department doing work outside F1, but it is still small.
"We've started that," he revealed. "We have a group, but it's tiny, like two people. We're building a ski brace, there's three projects on the go, including parts for the Alpine car.
“We don't use our design resource. We use some of our manufacturing resource to make components like the Alpine rear wing, some CFD work is done, some laminating work is done, but not much. And then external companies come in for design help.
"We had some people that were retiring. And we could use them to help the Alpine car. So that's what we did. We didn't establish it to be able to stuff people in there from a budget cap perspective. It exists, but like I said, we have two people, not hundreds."
Read Also:
- Red Bull: Cost cap has "changed the discipline" in F1 development race
- Vasseur wants quicker, stricter action for future F1 cost cap breaches
- F1 should free up technical rules now cost cap is in place, says Brown
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Netflix reveals F1's Drive to Survive season five release date
Next article How McLaren got on top of its F1 pitstop struggles
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Latest news
Alex Palou to drive Indy NXT machinery in Chris Griffis Memorial Test at IMS
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 26 min
Alex Palou to drive Indy NXT machinery in Chris Griffis Memorial Test at IMS
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
55 min
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
Into the unknown: What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
2 h
Into the unknown: What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut
Josh Pierson earns IndyCar license approval following IMS road course evaluation test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 2 h
Josh Pierson earns IndyCar license approval following IMS road course evaluation test
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe