According to Aston Martin’s boss, who affirmed the team’s title ambitions, the new Formula 1 cost cap for 2021 will have a “transformative” effect on the teams in the long term.
Formula 1 is in its first season of a spending cap, with each team capped at $ 145 million, albeit with a list of exceptions reduced to $ 135 million by 2023.
Only Mercedes and Red Bull, which are among the biggest donors of Formula 1, have won world championship titles in the last ten years.
Mercedes previously referred to the cost cap as a “challenge” and suggested that Valtteri Bottas’ accident at Imola would have an impact on development during the season.
Aston Martin is in the process of hiring more staff and building a new plant at Silverstone, having previously operated largely below the ceiling.
“I think it’s one of the biggest things, we haven’t quite understood how big this change is, but I think it will be transformative for Formula 1,” said Aston Martin boss Otmar Szafnauer.
“For the teams, our designers and Aero [teams], especially with large teams, costs were actually a secondary issue; it was all about performance.
“But now cost is becoming an issue where you have to weigh cost against performance. We make decisions based on performance, but also keeping costs in mind.
“If we can add a little performance, but at a very high cost, you may not. Hence, you will be looking for more low hanging fruit for performance at a lower cost level.
“That means teams will think completely differently; not so much us, but we were forced to make cost-performance decisions [previously] because we didn’t have the money, but it will be different with the big teams.
Szafnauer reiterated that Aston Martin is still aiming to battle for titles by the middle of the decade as ambitions were eased by spending curbs.
“If we can win the world title in three to four years, it would be a success, and to win in five years it would definitely be successful,” he said.
“If you look at the teams that have won multiple championships lately, I think it was four years for Mercedes to buy Brawn, the timeframe for Red Bull was about the same after they bought Jaguar.
“[When] Mercedes bought Brawn, they had won the world championship the year before and we finished fourth a few times, [so] We weren’t contenders for the World Cup, so it takes longer for a team that is at the top in midfield to come first.
“So if I say four to five years it would be a success if we can do it.”
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