F1 | Steiner on budget cap disagreements because of extra sprint events: "Why would we open a loophole here"
The Haas team principal explains his opinions on the upcoming Sprint budget cap rule.
In 2022, finally Formula 1 will apply the new – and largely discussed – regulations. They had to be used in 2021 already, but the outrage of the pandemic made it necessary to prolong the wait for one more year.
This have given everyone the time to try and talk about them and shape our own opinions. The ones that matter the most, however, are the protagonists’ ones, hence teams and drivers.
The major teams have criticised the rule of the budget cap, which provides a given budget that the teams, even the richest ones, are forbidden to overcome. The reason behind it, is to increase the competition and reduce the gap between bigger and minor teams. Meritocracy rules, isn’t it? Biggest teams are against it, as they say that the budget agreed is too low with the potential for six sprint events in 2022, according to Zak Brown.
Talking to RACER, Haas’ team principal Guenther Steiner goes deeper into the matter, as he says that he is in favour of it but he does not think it will achieve its purposal.
"I didn’t hear anything since our last meeting – I don’t remember where it was, Saudi Arabia maybe – with Stefano (Domenicali) about the Sprint races – Haas’ team principal states – We sent in our opinion about it, which we were asked to do, but since then I haven’t heard anything. I think there will be an F1 Commission meeting in the next weeks, so I think we will hear more from it.”
Table for three! #HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/jSRJhXsXUw
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) January 31, 2022
“But at the end of the day, it needs to make commercial sense, it needs to make sporting sense. I’m sure there will be a proposal and if FOM says some people are opposed to the budgets then they decide against it. I don’t really know because I don’t dislike Sprint races if they happen, but if they don’t happen I don’t think the upside is so big that I will go and vouch for them.
He then says he trusts Domenicali’s opinion.
“I don’t really know how much (the upside) is, so I will leave that in the hands of Stefano to sort out, because for sure if it makes sense commercially and the fans like it enough they will try to do it. But they are the promoter, we always work with them and try to be with them if we can do something better. But I’m not going out of my way so that the big teams get an advantage out of it because we raised the budget cap.”
“I’m grown up as well about that; why would we open a loophole here that means we are going back to the ‘good old days’ (before a budget cap)?”- he added.
Nevertheless, the Italian does not feel surprised nor frustrated by the bigger teams’ desire to increase their budgets. “No, it doesn’t frustrate me, because it’s just what you do if you can, – he explains – They are just doing what they can.”
