Teams don't foresee much impact from possible 'Brexit'

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With so many Formula One teams currently based in the United Kingdom, which is due to hold a referendum next month on whether to remain in the European Union or whether to leave, senior team officials have been quizzed on what effect any future 'Brexit' might mean for their race operations in the future.

"We have actually analysed it," revealed Paddy Lowe, executive director (Technical) of Mercedes F1. "One of our directors has looked at the issue because some of our staff members asked which way they should vote.

"He concluded that it didn’t really make a lot of difference, either to the company or to Formula One in general in terms of how we run the business. So we’ve left it to our employees to vote how they wish personally."

Lowe's verdict was echoed by Eric Boullier, racing director at McLaren.

"Similar position," he confirmed. "We don’t believe there will be a significant impact on the Formula One business. As a team and the industry is mainly based in the UK but we have managed always to use some suppliers abroad and I don’t think it’s going to change much."

Lowe added that he hadn't decided how he was personally going to vote in the referendum, a position also taken by Renault's Nick Chester and James Key, technical director at Toro Rosso.

As for Sauber, the Swiss-based team has always operated from outside the European Union.

"As you know we’re in Switzerland so in the first instance haven’t taken the step into the EU – may be good or bad," said team principal Monisha Kaltenborn. "I think Switzerland is doing quite well, so it’s not for me to tell somebody to get out or not."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.