Potential ban on virtual garages labeled as 'ridiculous' by Force India

Force India COO Otmar Szafnauer is siding with those who oppose The Formula One Group's potential plan to ban virtual garages during race weekends, labeling the idea as "ridiculous".

In addition to their resources deployed during a Grand Prix race weekend, teams also rely on an important engineering staff collecting and analyzing data in real time back at its headquarters.

Formula One is mulling the idea of imposing a complete ban on what it sees as 'virtual garages' in order to reduce costs. But Szafnauer says a ban or restriction would unlikely lead to cost reductions.

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"Here’s the thing: What cost? We have the virtual garage already and so does everyone else," the Force India executive told RaceFans.

"So what cost? That cost is sunk. Getting rid of it is only going to cost everyone. We already have it."

The maximum number of paddock-based staff is limited to 60, with several teams deploying less personnel than that amount.

Szafnauer contends that engineers and personnel sitting back at base on race weekends are full-time members of the Silverstone-based outfit.

"The people that we employ for that virtual garage are people that we already employ," explained Szafnauer, stating the case of Force India's technical director Andy Green, who wasn't present last weekend in France but was on deck back at the team's base.

"Andrew Greeen is the technical director. He isn’t employed to sit in the virtual garage, he’s employed as a technical director.

"But when he doesn’t travel he’s there. It’s just the opposite. We run two strategists, one per car.

"One of them doesn’t travel, he’s in the virtual garage. Now if they get rid of that we’ll have them travel. It costs you more."

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