AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost is concerned about the cost of developing the all-new 2022 Formula 1 cars next year.
In the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it was agreed to delay the introduction of the new technical regulations originally planned for next season by a year and prohibit all development work until the start of 2021.
Limits on the development of this year’s cars are also still being discussed, but Tost admits putting a plan in place for the future remains tough with so many uncertainties.
“We want to bring some upgrades to the car, but first of all I want to know if we race or not,” he told Formula1.com.
“I don’t want to start making upgrades and then we don’t race because of the financial side, we have to save money wherever possible.
“I’m also very worried about next year,” he notes.
“Although we can take over more or less this year’s car for 2021 because there is no regulation change, in 2021, we have to design and fabricate a completely new car for 2022, and I still don’t know how we can manage this from the financial side.
“To build up such a big project costs a lot of money but we will see.
“It has been decided this way, I would have preferred to postpone to 2023, but FOM and FIA have decided against that so now we have to get the best out of it.”
Red Bull’s Christian Horner had been leading a push to delay the new cars for a further year but that was rejected.
To try and minimise the economic impact though, a reduced budget cap of $145m will be introduced with that figure then reduced by $5m for the following two years.
However, while AlphaTauri has the might of Red Bull behind them, Tost explains it is unlikely the team will reach that level.
“For me, the numbers are still too high,” he says. “I’ve always pushed for lower numbers simply because we have a global economic crisis. I expect it’s three to four years progress until we recover.
“It’s difficult to find sponsors. While we have a cap of $145m, regarding AlphaTauri, you have to add around another $40m [for exceptions] so it means we’re talking around a budget of $185m or similar.
“This is a big challenge to bring together this amount of money. If you don’t do so many races this year, we won’t get as much money next year from FOM. Anyway, this has been decided.
“We have a business plan and of course we get a certain amount of money [from Red Bull], but we have to stay within these figures,” the Austrian added.
“It’s not a case of just asking for more money, we have to find ways not to overspend – like it is the case everywhere.”
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