Ferrari: Calendar expansion and budget cap hard to blend

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto says any expansion of the F1 calendar from 2021 will force teams to hire additional personnel, a challenging requisite in the context of the sport's future budget cap.

F1's schedule in 2020 will include a record 22 races but commercial rights holder Liberty Media is likely to increase that number by a few more races in the future.

Binotto insists teams will need to boost their human resources and implement personnel rotation procedures to keep up with Grand Prix racing's swelling agenda.

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But a $175 million budget cap set to be introduced from 2021 could crucially limit teams' ability to boost staff numbers.

"It means that we will need extra people, to rotate them, from the mechanics to the engineers, even key people, because maybe mechanics already today some are rotating, but key people normally not," Binotto told Motorsport.com.

"I think as a team we want to make sure that you're keeping your people in the future, you need to really try to manage the effort throughout the distance, so in the end, it will have a big impact.

©Ferrari

"It will have a big impact from the number of people, it will have a big impact logistically, because you need somehow to manage logistically the transport of all the parts.

"So it's not easy, and there's very little time to organise ourselves as well, because increasing the number of people is not something you do easily, and that is using as well the budget cap.

"So here is the risk. Because you may not afford the right number of people simply because you need to manage extra salaries [under the budget cap]. Not an easy one."

Regarding spending, F1's big teams are likely to overspend next year or pull forward expenditures before cost cutting measures kick in down the road.

According to Italy's Corriere della Sera, Ferrari chief executive Louis Camilleri has given the green light to an investment plan involving the recruitment of vehicle dynamic and tyre management engineers.

As a reminder, Alfa Romeo chief designer Simone Resta, who previously worked at Ferrari, will return to Maranello in November to lead the Scuderia's tech department.

Corriere della Sera also reported that additional resources have been earmarked for a new simulator, with the Scuderia's current platform being ten years old.

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