Apr
According to Aston Martin Performance Director Tom McCullough, having two races in as many days at the Baku City Circuit will raise the possibility of costly accident damage exceeding F1’s budget cap.
Tom McCullough, director of performance at Aston Martin Formula 1, admitted that the prospects of competing two times in two days on Baku’s streets is “worrying.”
The opening Formula One Sprint weekend of the year will take place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which will also be the first time F1 has used a street track for an alternative weekend format.
In addition to the intense qualifying session, which frequently results in incidents in the city of Azerbaijan, racers will be required to finish the whole Grand Prix distance on Sunday as well as a 100km race on Saturday.
The extent of possible harm was made apparent by Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner’s new admission that Mick Schumacher’s accident at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix first practice cost the team $700,000. Teams are given financial support for Sprint weekends within F1’s budget cap, but this current revelation underscores the severity of the potential damage.
McCullough received questions whether the Baku Sprint raised greater pressure of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which is bookended by street events in Miami and Australia.
“Yeah, from a cost cap side of things, that worries me,” McCullough told media, including RacingNews365.com.
“Thankfully, touch wood, we haven’t had any shunts and lots of crash damage yet, but [Albert Park] is always a worry and these three [races] in a row is definitely a concern.”
McCullough on modifying formats
The Sprint format for Azerbaijan is still possible to change because F1 wants to use a new qualifying system.
With squads currently having to adapt to an unusual weekend schedule, McCullough gave his thoughts on the changes, saying: “Technically, I don’t mind.
“I find these changing formats, as a team if you react well to it, it can be a benefit.
“I’m still not convinced on the qualifying where, in effect, trying to get the faster cars at the back of the grid and the slower ones at the front, that’s been one of the proposals – the single lap qualifying and things like that, I don’t think that’s necessarily the right thing to do and the higher potential for accidents in damage.
“I think the existing grid format already is quite challenging and works pretty well. So I think we should do that a bit more to be learned. There seems to be an urgency to change and from a regulation side of things, it’s not straightforward.
“So for the moment, I think we should get used to the current format, not chop and change too much. But if you want to chop and change, you should have the time to do it properly.”
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