The coronavirus crisis could lead to Formula One’s already postponed 2021 rules revolution being pushed back another year to 2023.
The package has so far been delayed to 2022 to save costs at a time when the sport and teams are facing a significant loss of revenues due to the lack of racing as countries go into lockdown. The season has yet to start and so far the eight opening races have either been postponed or cancelled.
In order to save costs, Formula One has said teams will continue to use this year’s cars in 2021 and will not be allowed to work on aerodynamic development on the new regulations until the start of next year. However, in order to make further savings, F1’s team principals have discussed delaying the new rules until 2023.
“We’re also talking about pushing back a further year the new regulations, because in my mind it would be totally irresponsible to have the burden of development costs in 2021,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told the BBC.
“There seems to be reasonable agreement but it needs ratifying by the FIA to push back those development costs into 2022 for introduction in the ’23 season. The most important thing we need now is stability.”
Formula One derives most of its revenues from hosting fees, global television contracts and sponsorship and faces a massive financial hit if grands prix cannot be run. The team’s share of the revenues comes in the form of prize money but is paid one year in arrears, meaning the financial hit the sport feels this year will be passed on to the teams in 2021.
The prospect of developing an all-new car for 2022 in a year when F1’s payments to the teams are already down is one of the reasons for delaying the rule change further. Horner is in little doubt that F1 itself will survive the financial hit of the coronavirus pandemic, but said F1’s independent teams could face difficulties.
“F1 will survive this,” he added. “Whether all the teams survive this is another matter, and it is the responsibility of all the team principals to act with the interests of the sport and all its participants, to do our best to ensure all 10 teams come out the other side.”
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said at the weekend that commercial rights holder Liberty Media expected a loss of $200-300m in revenue.
Marko also astonished many in that interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF when he revealed he had suggested it would be good for Red Bull’s drivers to get infected with coronavirus now so they would not get sick once racing resumed.
Horner, whose team are actively involved in a ‘Project Pitlane’ initiative to make more ventilators, said Marko’s comments had never been taken seriously.
“It was in many ways a throwaway comment before understanding the seriousness of the pandemic,” he said. “Things like the ventilator project we are working on demonstrate how seriously we are taking this and how much effort’s going behind it.”