Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto has strongly reaffirmed the team’s opposition to including standardised parts into Formula 1.
As part of the regulation changes for 2021, the FIA has already put out tenders for gearbox casings, brake systems and wheel rims to be produced by a single supplier as given to all teams.
Although, speaking last weekend in Spain, Haas boss Guenther Steiner insisted the whole topic is still up for discussion.
“First of all, I think it hasn’t been decided how much we do standardisation,” he was quoted by PitPass. “So I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves to say that it’s been decided for ’21.
“I don’t know if anyone signed an agreement that those parts will be standardised. A lot of parties looked into it because the tenders went out – but it could go both ways.”
Steiner then questioned the introduction of standard parts, claiming that the decision to start small might lead to a “slippery slope” later on.
It was then that Binotto voiced the same arguments that Ferrari has continually made about taking such a path.
“As Ferrari, we always relay that we are against the standardisation principle,” he stated.
“But we know as well that we need to control the costs and expenses – and obviously there is a budget cap so we need to find the right balance.
“Standardisation only makes sense if you may save money, which has to be proved first, and we need to take care of the DNA of F1 as well.
“For example, if we take the rims, all the cars with exactly the same rims – I think that, in terms of aesthetics, is not good for F1 from the outside, because you’re not differentiating any more the cars from one car to the other, maybe just the paint.
“[But] we are going through an entire process, together with the FIA tenders,” Binotto added. “I think first we should look at the result of the tenders and then to a proper evaluation and make it carefully.”
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There was support from the smaller teams, unsurprisingly, with Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur pointing out F1 already has one key standard part.
“F1 was able to do it on the ECU 15 years ago,” he said, with that part coming from McLaren. “I think that we can manage a situation on the brakes or the rims.
While Toro Rosso chief Franz Tost also countered Ferrari’s argument of altering F1’s DNA.
“I don’t agree to say the DNA of F1 is just to develop [technology], we have to find a way to bring down with the costs and no-one takes care which brakes we have in the car, or which rims they have,” he said.
“The people want to see some interesting races and some overtaking and we have to come down with the costs. Therefore I am in agreement with as many standardised parts as possible.”
