F1 Teams Struggling With Budget's
Team Budget's are the first thing considered to be successful in Formula One. Yes, technology is of the utmost importance, but without money you can't bring new upgrades and developments to be competitive enough to attract sponsors.
Germany's Auto Motor und Sport have published an analysis of F1 teams budget's which claims only four of F1's twelve teams have the necessary finances in place for the long term.
According to the report, only Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes are secure from a financial point of view, with at least half of the grid fighting for financial stability.
Auto Motor und Sport named HRT as the team with the smallest budget, €40 million, and lowest head count, 120. While the reigning champions Red Bull, spent €330m annually. The report also said Virgin had €60m budget operating with 220 employees whilst Lotus ran on €70m and 240 staff. Williams, Force India and Toro Rosso are all running on almost €80m.
With so much young talent knocking on F1's doors this year, the teams like Williams and Sauber have now opted for so called pay-drivers for 2011. Vitaly Petrov has reportedly brought double his 2010 money to the Renault seat this year. HRT and Virgin are already running pay driver schemes, with HRT giving a 20% discount for the 2011 grid allowing Narain Karthikeyan to join them with payment of just €8m.
Arturo Merzario, an Italian driver of the 70s famous for pulling Niki Lauda from his burning Ferrari, thinks the sport is living on borrowed time due to large budgets needed to compete: "It will go back to being a sport only for a few car manufacturers," he told La Repubblica in an interview.
Credit: The F1 Times (www.thef1times.com)
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