I knew Williams was underinvested, but wow. They need like 3 Ryan Reynolds to catch up.
Can they catch up with the current budget caps?
According to James in the article, no they can’t. Hopefully the FIA can be convinced to relax capital expenditure regulations for smaller teams at least.
Even with the capex limits, the smaller teams should slowly catch up to the big teams infrastructure wise because the teams with better facilities have less room to improve when spending the same amount of money. Problem is that the smaller teams don’t have the overall budget to invest in facilities, etc.
The current capex limits are more harmful to teams like alpine, Aston, McLaren and Audi/Sauber who have the money needed to upgrade/build modern facilities but are hamstrung by the spending limits
the smaller teams should slowly catch up to the big teams infrastructure wise because the teams with better facilities have less room to improve when spending the same amount of money
I don’t think this is totally true. Technology marches onwards always, and while newer tech is more expensive, the teams out front are spending every cent to get further ahead, whereas the disadvantaged teams are playing catch-up.
Tech development would have to stop for the back teams to catch up in a reasonable timeframe. Relying on the asymptotic nature of improvement probably isn’t enough.
That makes sense. In regards to Aston though, were they able to build their new factory and start their new wind tunnel because they started before the caps came into effect? In that case a rival mid field team like Alpine really is in a tough spot.
wasn’t the total investment at that point 200M?
Which at the moment is basically a permanent debuff for Williams. I’m all for a cost cap to introduce equality up and down the grid, but if teams cannot make the investment needed to catch up, that is a problem.
But does Williams even have the money needed to make the investment¿?
Yeah, since Dorilton took over.
It’s not entirely true that previous capital expenses are a permanent buff/debuff. The capital resources Mercedes have all have a finite competitive lifetime, and are going to become progressively less of an advantage over time. The next capital project Williams takes on, if they do it effectively, will result something more effective than what big teams already built due to being newer and being built on more modern tech.
It’s true that right at this moment, big teams are flush with up to date capex projects from the pre-cap era, and so can focus their resources on car development rather than capital projects… where small teams have tough prioritization decisions to make. But that won’t last forever, and within a few years those big teams are going to have a painful experience of reintroducing capital projects that reduce their car development budget.
I’m sure this is frustrating for team-principals that are in the thick of an infra rebuild, staring at competitors who are starting with the job done. But 5 or 10 years from now, the steady rate of capex refreshment will be what matters, and the one-time pre-cost-cap injection will no longer mean much. And realistically, this is the most the cost-cap can achieve. You can delete the advantage 30 years of massive spending overnight… all you can really do is stop the bleeding and let time run its course.
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