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Adrian Newey criticizes: The budget limit is bad for staff!

According to Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey, who suffers most from the mandatory cost cap and why a Red Bull engineer has already quit.

Adrian Newey considers the budget cap in Formula 1 to be sensible, but he also recognizes “hidden disadvantages”, as he explains in an interview with auto motor und sport. What bothers the long-standing vehicle designer the most: “That Formula 1 is no longer the best-paid industry.”

In doing so, Newey is explicitly not talking about himself as a senior employee, but about the ordinary team members. These were often poached by other Formula 1 racing teams in the past. “Now we are losing them to technology companies because they pay better. Or to WEC teams because they offer more attractive salaries,” says Newey.

Blake Hinsey, a former Red Bull engineer, confirms this trend. He also switched to the World Endurance Championship (WEC). His reason: “24 race weekends were too many for me. I got out when there were still 21 Grands Prix because I wanted to have a life.” With fewer race weekends, the WEC offers him “so much more.”

He recently turned down a comeback offer: “The maximum salary for the role of race engineer in Formula One was less than what I earned last year in the WEC as a part-time performance engineer for an LMDh team.”

Hinsey blames the team bosses for this grievance and criticizes: “It really annoys me that Formula 1, the FIA and the teams are destroying the sport – just because it’s Formula 1.”

Newey demands more technical freedoms

Newey also warns the decision-makers of the consequences: Formula 1 is in danger of losing out on young engineers. “We are having difficulty attracting graduates because Formula 1 can no longer afford to be the most lucrative industry,” he explains.

If Formula 1 is already financially constrained, it needs to create more freedom in other areas, demands Newey: “The fear that higher spending would drive a team out of business has theoretically disappeared with the budget cap and a set engineering budget.”

“Therefore, at this point, you would actually have to relax the technical regulations instead of tightening them further and further. Unfortunately, however, that is not what is happening.”

All of this could cause more Formula One employees to leave. Hinsey, at least, is promoting the World Endurance Championship: “I can do a lot more there at the race track and in the factory than I could in Formula One, and I love this challenge.” He has therefore “finished” with Formula One.

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