James Vowles, Williams team principal, has spoken candidly about the obstacles that must be overcome to compete with the top teams. Specifically, Vowles has outlined the gross lack of investment at Grove over the last twenty years.
Unfortunately for the British outfit, other F1 teams have voted against an extension to the budget cap (capex) to allow for the construction of new facilities.
Formula 1’s budget cap was intended to level the playing field and prevent bigger teams from simply outspending their rivals to achieve an edge in performance.
Considering the dominance of big-money spenders like Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull since the turn of the century, this seemed an honest issue to tackle.
However, Williams was late to formulate plans to build new development facilities – meaning their efforts are currently dependent on an exception to the budget cap being approved.
Speaking during the summer break, Toto Wolff has blamed other “big teams” for voting against this change:
“We came up with a list. Some of the big teams said we don’t want a list, and if Williams gets stuff – we want to have stuff,” motorsport.com quotes him as saying.
“And that was simply shut down. We need stability of regulations, on financial regulations.
“And you need to be able to have a business plan that is valid and not a free rein every two years, where we change the goalposts on capex.
“So that’s why this was the end of the capex discussion, but maybe we will find a solution for Williams.”
The importance of politics is not a new phenomenon in F1, with decades of well-documented off-track skirmishes having played a crucial role in the outcomes on track.
Consistent with this historical precedent, further debate can be expected surrounding a variety of issues in the foreseeable future.
Author: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
