Honda’s exit from Formula One has sent shock waves through the sport but
putting a line through an F1 budget is an easy way for a car manufacturer’s
board to save hundreds of millions.
In many ways, though, the decision seems incongruous. After one of the
all-time great seasons, with record audiences and visits to cities such as
Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai and Sao Paulo over the past few months, any
recessionary impact was difficult to spot. In the same way, while belatedly
recognising the inevitable financial squeeze, F1 teams continued
relentlessly in search of reduced lap times.
Alarm bells started ringing when circuits such as Silverstone, Montreal,
Hockenheim and Magny-Cours said they can no longer afford to host a grand
prix. Now we’ve lost a major team, having said farewell to their “sister
team” Super Aguri earlier in the year. If nobody buys the Honda team, we’re
down to nine teams and eight owners.
As with everybody, F1 is in uncharted territory. Every worst-case scenario
previously calculated no longer applies and the alarming aspect of Honda’s
pullout is what might happen next.
If board members of other manufacturers are looking for an excuse to leave F1,
there will be less embarrassment now. Even the stronger marques who can
afford F1 may have to be seen to be cutting back as sales and employment
levels fall.
The statements of intent to remain in grand prix racing from Toyota, BMW and
Mercedes-Benz were important and there may yet be a saviour of the Honda F1
remnants who fancies buying a team in a fire sale.
This is not the first time we’ve lost a manufacturer team or engine supplier,
but this is more significant because F1 has let itself become staggeringly
expensive. If other manufacturers depart, remembering all of them provide
engines for at least one other team, then it’s F1 meltdown in the short
term.
But it need not be. The world still turns, there’s business to be done and F1
sells cars, products and services. The costs compare badly, though. The F1
feeder series, GP2, provides great racing entertainment for a team budget of
£4m, rather than F1’s £200m. The FIA’s new F2 series is going to cost
£250,000 per car. Taken to extremes, last weekend I watched Felipe Massa’s
charity kart event where he, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and
others were wheel-to-wheel around a small bumpy track in Brazil driving
£2,000 karts. It was great entertainment.
However, these are all spec formulas with identical machinery whereas F1’s
essential unique selling point has always been that the teams design and
build the cars. I’m sure F1 would lose much of its credibility and following
if it went down the one-make route but in the short term rationalisation is
urgently needed. The teams will soon announce their ideas; here is my
eight-point plan to slash costs for 2009.
1 The 2.4-litre, 19,000rpm V8 engines are expensive even though they
are required to last two race meetings and their specification is
theoretically frozen. I suggest they knock 2,000 revs off the maximum
permitted engine speed and allow the teams until the eve of the first race
to reoptimise only the ancillaries and electronics. Then they must be used
for four races. The fans don’t care about the revs.
2 Teams do 30,000km of testing a year with no spectators. F1 exists for
the TV audience and the media coverage and anything that doesn’t add to the
show needs a line through it. Ban testing outside of the Friday and Saturday
of grand prix weekends. This will help the smaller teams compete and they
will all save a fortune. Allow limited preseason and high-speed
straight-line testing to ensure safety and reliability of the cars.
3 At the end of the first race and again in mid-season, all cars must
be made available to all teams for close inspection, measurement and
photography. This will keep the competition closer and dissuade
stratospher-ic spending on wind tunnels and computers.
4 Reduce the allocation of dry tyres from 14 to eight sets per race
weekend. So many tyres travel the globe, are mounted and then used for just
a few miles.
5 Share common components and consumables. We have a standard supply of
tyres, why not extend that to brakes, gearbox, wheel hubs and fixings, to
name just a few? These items will never gain the sport one spectator.
Savings will not fully apply until 2010.
6 Limit the total number of team personnel at the race track to, say,
50. Limit pitstops to eight crew.
7 Consider postponing Kers. The regulations for 2009 include
incorporating Kers (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) devices that store
otherwise wasted braking energy, converting it into power. Having saved the
teams €5m with the engine freeze, developing this new technology costs much
more. Toyota are not running it initially but BMW and others are keen. The
smaller teams are wholly dependent on expensive hand-me-downs from the
manufacturers. It may be too late to make full savings.
8 F1 generates huge revenues in sanction fees, TV rights, trackside
advertising and corporate hospitality. Much less than half flows back to the
F1 teams and virtually none filters into grassroots or junior level. With
capped costs and a guaranteed increased income, the 12 F1 franchises would
become very attractive, generating full grids and further economies of
scale. With the likes of Jenson Button on the market and an enormous pool of
young and fast emerging talent, driver retainers will be self-regulating.
Teams will quickly regulate other labour costs.
I’m sure F1 will survive in rude health, probably even fitter, but the track
will be bumpy for a while, and others will spin off into retirement.
Hitting the skids: when the F1 money runs out
Honda is not the first F1 team to be hit by financial or competitive
difficulties. Since 1970, more than 50 teams have come and gone . . .
- After more than 30 years’ involvement, during which time they won two
constructors’ and four drivers’ titles, Brabham collapsed midway through
1992 and were investigated by the Serious Fraud Office
- BRM claimed 17 wins in their 26-year existence, with drivers such as Jackie
Stewart and Graham Hill, but failed to maintain their position in F1’s elite
and last raced in 1977
- Others to have fallen by the wayside include Lotus, Jaguar and Teams Jordan,
Prost and Stewart Of the current teams, Williams now seem the most
vulnerable. Sir Frank Williams led them to nine constructors’ and seven
drivers’ championships between 1980 and 1997 but independence from the top
car manufacturers and lack of high-profile sponsors may leave his team
exposed
- Of the 10 teams that finished the 2008 season, seven were based in England,
mainly in Oxfordshire and Northants
