Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says a Sprint Race trial this season would require lifting F1's mandatory $145m cost cap for the sport's big teams.
Formula 1 teams have agreed in principle to a three-race trial involving a 100km qualifying race on Saturday afternoon, a concept aimed at boosting the action for fans on race weekends.
While everyone is onboard with the idea of giving the initiative a chance to prove its merits, financial considerations are currently at the center of discussions, with F1 offering teams a special payment to compensate for the additional running costs and potential damage associated with the three sprint races.
However, after crunching the numbers, Horner says his team would still end up with a negative bottom line for the three extra races at a time when Red Bull is chasing savings to meet this years budget cap threshold.
"We accept that cash in for this - that what’s been proposed - doesn’t match cash out at the moment," Horner said.
"So effectively it’s an investment by the teams into FOM to say: ‘OK, we support this in the hope that if it works it generates future revenue, future interest, future benefit into the sport in future years.
"But at the moment the cost benefit in terms of income in versus what it costs to operate these cars… if you divide $145m by 23 events, you can see what it takes to operate a grand prix car. And of course, adding in, effectively albeit a shortened race, is just more cost that we’re naturally going to incur the usage of parts, etc.
"So there just has to be a sensible allowance that takes that into account, because we’re chasing £10,000, £20,000, £30,000 savings at the moment to ensure that we’re hitting the cap.
"To suddenly have a variable like this is something that just needs to be accommodated. We’re keen to support it but there needs to be an accommodation."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who believes the sprint race idea is one worth trialing, says the Brackley was in a similar position to its Red Bull rival and also desperately chasing small savings left and right in all departments.
"We are really struggling to just come in below the budget cap, and we’re talking about tens of thousands of pounds and not hundreds of thousands," commented Wolff.
"Therefore we would really like to support Stefano [Domenicali] and Ross [Brawn] with the idea because I think it’s worth trying.
"But we simply haven’t got the margin to go for it and then find out that there is an extra half million pounds or more that we have to find within that budget cap, because that could mean looking at people again and that’s not where I want to go any more, at all."
McLaren boss Zak Brown recognized the financial risk associated with the three races, but insists that a final arrangement must not allow for an expansion of the cost cap limit.
"Sprint racing/sprint qualifying will cost more money and can cost significant more money if there’s accident damage," he said.
"I think there are some different proposals on the table. We just need to make sure that we address that specific issue and that we don’t put a rule in place that creates an opportunity that starts expanding the budget cap that we’ve all agreed to.
"So I’m confident that we’ll figure that out."
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