AlphaTauri F1 boss Franz Tost has revealed that F1’s revised budget cap will not be enough to help some of the smaller teams compete with the larger ones. The sport had attempted to level the playing field by imposing a cost cap on spending to narrow the gap between the top teams and the smaller teams.
While this year’s $140 million budget cap has reduced the spending capacities of teams like Mercedes F1, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari F1, Tost still doesn’t believe the changes will make the sport more competitive.
Tost doesn’t think the F1 budget cap will improve the sport’s competitiveness
In an interview with Autosport, AlphaTauri F1 boss Franz Tost said: “We still have to work on the infrastructure to optimize everything on this side. When I see the simulation tools and I can only hear what these top teams have, we just don’t have that. They have invested millions in it in recent years. We have a good budget, but we’ve never been able to invest that much money in simulation tools. And simulation tools are becoming more and more important because we run less on the track. So you have to have that, and I think we still have some shortcomings there.
However, the Austrian team boss conceded that the uncertainties of how the cost cap will limit even at the top teams could make the sport interesting this season. “It’s a very unknown story because everything is completely new. We have no comparisons with others. I trust our engineers because they built two good cars: the AT01 was already a good car and the [2021] Auto was the next step forward. So why shouldn’t they be able to make the AT03, even though it’s a completely new car, very competitive as well,” added the 66-year-old.
While Tost is confident his side will be competitive for next season, he is aware that the other teams are capable of delivering strong competition. “A lot of things put us in a good position. But not only us, the others are doing the same thing. This is Formula 1, a big fight everywhere.”
