General
Ecclestone doesn't support budget cap: "It's been complete rubbish"
- GPblog.com
As of 2021 there will be a budget cap that Formula 1 teams will have to adhere to. For the top teams this means scaling back expenses and for the smaller teams there will initially be little financial change. With the steps that will be taken afterwards, the goal is to eventually bring the entire field closer together. A step in the right direction, but Bernie Ecclestone thinks different about it.
Rubbish
"It’s been complete rubbish," says Ecclestone in conversation with Standard, "They were messing about over £5 million, which is a tiny percentage of their budget, when there’s other things that need to be done." Clear language and Ecclestone goes even further by stating that it's about the people and not the budget.
"When I owned Brabham, we used to spend a lot less than Ferrari and we still won and they didn’t. It’s about the people, not the money. The money’s become an ego competition rather than a real competition, one guy just wanting to spend more than the other guy. But again, the public don’t care."
Reset
However, this does not mean that Ecclestone is not in favour of the new regulations. On the contrary, he applauds it. "It’s a wonderful opportunity to reset the clock. There’s millions of things that could be done better. People watch Formula One for competition. They don’t want to go to a race knowing who’s going to win."
"They need to simplify the cars. The engine they have is an incredible feat of engineering, but do the public care how super-efficient that is? Probably not. They just want good racing." Ecclestone emphasizes that the goal of making Formula 1 less predictable is the right one.
"Gone are the days when you’d start a race with 16 cars and you’d be lucky if half of them finished. Now everyone finishes and it’s got a bit boring and predictable," concludes the Brit who was at the top of Formula 1 for years.