[RahulNagaraj]

Red Bull Racing and Ferrari believe competitors guilty of causing a crash should pay for the crash damages. Both teams have called out the authorities at F1 and the FIA to rethink its cost cap regulations, taking into considerations crash damages and who is at fault.



Both teams feel that if a driver is truly found to be at fault, then the driver's team should pay for the crash damages. The call was first made by Red Bull post the British Grand Prix, asking Mercedes-Benz to pay up for the crash between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Silverstone.



Ferrari joined Red Bull post the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Team Principal Mattia Binotto calling into question the cost cap regulations when driver Charles Leclerc was taken out by Aston Martin's Lance Stroll in turn 1 of the Hungaroring.



As per the cost cap regulations in place, all teams have been forced to stick to a budget of $145 million in 2021. This will reduce to $140 million in 2022 and stabilise at $135 million from 2023 onwards. Teams are forced to commit to the specific amount allotted, which means any such major crashes and incidents will hurt the team's budget allotment, making it tougher for them to stay under the annual number.

Source: Motorsport.com

Link to Team-BHP news

[SShandilya]

This shouldn’t become a trend.
I mean at the end it’s a mistake by the driver and it can happen to anyone.
No one is crashing deliberately.
If this is allowed, how will the drivers even race ? How will they defend their position or how would they overtake ?
I honestly find it absurd.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by SShandilya

If this is allowed, how will the drivers even race? How will they defend their position, or how would they overtake?
I honestly find it absurd.

Don't worry about the racing; these drivers will race as hard as before, the best racers, that is.

So how much amount should be paid, who will be the one to evaluate the damage and to assess its worth. These are the grey areas, I believe.

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by SShandilya

No one is crashing deliberately.

Are you sure?
Ayrton Senna crashed into Alain Prost.
Michael Schumacher repeated it with Damon Hill.

Of course they never admitted it was intentional, but it's out there in the open for everyone to see.

[SShandilya]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Don't worry about the racing; these drivers will race as hard as before, the best racers, that is.

So how much amount should be paid, who will be the one to evaluate the damage and to assess its worth. These are the grey areas, I believe.

I disagree with you on the first point you made for simple reason it does make the driver think twice before making an aggressive overtake or defend move.
Think about team with small budgets, the engineer will try to persuade the driver to wait it out till he can make safely make the move.

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Are you sure?
Ayrton Senna crashed into Alain Prost.
Michael Schumacher repeated it with Damon Hill.

Of course they never admitted it was intentional, but it's out there in the open for everyone to see.

That’s why I started my post with saying that it shouldn’t become a trend.
Anomalies cannot be made ground for such absurd rules.

[speedracer05]

I am actually curious how is the spending cap enforced?, How do they keep track of spendings that went into the car?

[xrules]

Originally Posted by speedracer05

I am actually curious how is the spending cap enforced?, How do they keep track of spendings that went into the car?

In my understanding, these rules must be followed and can be audited at any time and if any discrepancies are found, they can lead to disqualification and fines. So books need to be maintained and kept. For example there is mandatory FIA stop in the summer for 2 weeks and nothing can happen in these 2 weeks. You have to stop working and fixing things and only after 2 weeks you should fix your issues and start any development. Funny but it is what it is.

[GTO]

There are way too many challenges out here. The teams at the back - with their limited budgets - won't take as many risks or drive as aggressively. Then, who on earth will decide what is a fair repair price? Red Bull will say whatever it wants is the cost to repair its damaged car. What if one of the backmarkers causes a 5-car crash? Will he have to pay for repairing 5 cars

Red Bull & Ferrari have to realise they are in the 'racing business' before making such absurd suggestions. Accident repairs are one of the costs of running that business.

[SILVER-ARROW]

In current times when Formula 1 is struggling to retain viewership they are finding absurd ways to kill the thrill and making the outcome of races predictable like the 2020 F1 season.

Formula1 thrived because people loved the excitement and unpredictability associated with the race and talent which drivers were allowed to showcase without having to think of repercussion of driving on the limit and worrying about outcomes.
What got me hooked onto Formula 1 was the 1995 Belgian grand Prix which had a script made out of movies. Schumacher started from 16th on thegrid and won the race.

With new regulations being framed after every alternate race, It wont be far when we will have autonomous cars in Formula 1 to avoid any crashes and keep all teams happy.

[nitkel]

Perfect opportunity I say for a global insurance company to offer to insure F1 cars at exorbitant prices citing frequent 6 figure damages! They can even offer a 3 race NCB!

[StarrySky]

I don't think the teams making this demand really want competitors to pay for damages. What they want most likely is to have the cost of accident repairs excluded from cost cap (especially if they are the "innocent party").

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

I don't think the teams making this demand really want competitors to pay for damages. What they want most likely is to have the cost of accident repairs excluded from cost cap (especially if they are the "innocent party").

Absolutely! Even engine changes due to accidents should be excluded from the 3 engines per season rule.

Else it will be a nightmare for teams and drivers.

[mnram]

In my opinion, it is not fair to ask the competitors to pay for the damages. Teams should push for exclusion from the FIA.

And if by chance this is implemented, how can we expect the drivers to race hard, which is going against the spirit of Formula1! The drivers should be concentrating on racing and not on keeping their cars safe.

[kiran_aithal]

First of all, I do not agree with capping the budget for each team. And in races, there are bound to be crashes (or the probability of crashes are high) as everyone wants to win. So, if budgets are capped, then, the teams have to set aside some part of it anticipating crashes; the same money could have been to further develop the cars (as time progresses, some of these technologies trickle down to our public road safe cars).

[Mohan Mathew A]

Originally Posted by GTO

There are way too many challenges out here. The teams at the back - with their limited budgets - won't take as many risks or drive as aggressively. Then, who on earth will decide what is a fair repair price? Red Bull will say whatever it wants is the cost to repair its damaged car. What if one of the backmarkers causes a 5-car crash? Will he have to pay for repairing 5 cars

Red Bull & Ferrari have to realise they are in the 'racing business' before making such absurd suggestions. Accident repairs are one of the costs of running that business.

I don't think it is the cost which is the concern (atleast for Redbull and Ferrari), it is the budget cap. Someone has to pay for the damages and it will come out of someones budget. Redbull and Ferrari are arguing it should be paid by the team causing the accident and should come out of that team's budget. The amount and the proportion of responsibility (of causing the accident) should be determined by the FIA technical committee/stewards.

I think the argument has merit and it should be carefully evaluated with necessary safeguards built in so that it doesn't affect competition.

One of the options is to make the team causing the accident to pay (in proportion of the responsibility) but to take the entire accident repair part out of the budget cap.

Anyway i definitely foresee some changes to this aspect next season