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The battle for the Formula 1 drivers’ and constructors’ championship is long since over, but there are still battles down the order that matter. And while the fight for positions in the drivers’ championship is for nothing more than bragging rights, the teams are doing battle for good old-fashioned dollars. Millions of them.
One position in the constructors’ standings can equate to a gain or loss of more than $10million, which is a significant contribution to any team’s budget. But while once it was all upside, it also comes with a penalty.
F1’s aerodynamic testing restrictions (ATR) limit how much windtunnel and CFD research time you have. The regulations dictate a notional allowance for both, which only the seventh-placed team gets 100% of. The rest either get less (the top six) or more in 5% increments – so one position means a 5% gain or loss.
Red Bull is worst off on this scale, with its allowance slash by a further 10% of the maximum as punishment for its cost cap breach, while Williams is rooted to the bottom of the table. But the other eight teams still aren’t certain where they will finish, with four distinct battles forming.
The obvious question is whether being beaten is really so bad. After all, the consolation prize is more windtunnel runs and CFD items, which should add up to better performance. And no technical director would be happy with losing that research time.
However, how much aerodynamic research time you have doesn’t matter if you don’t have the money to manufacture the parts. That means this is just one part of the equation that dictates how competitive you are and finishing one place lower doesn’t necessarily mean you will be significantly better next year.
As Mercedes head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin pointed out when the cost of the Red Bull 10% drop in ATR allowance was being discussed, “if it were [a loss] of half a second, then a team at the back of the grid would have over three seconds advantage to one at the front, and that simply isn’t the case”.
To add to that, you have to consider the benefit of $10-12m in extra prize money. That will have an impact on the team’s budget and even for those who are already spending at or near the cost cap limit, that cash always comes in handy. For those lower down the grid, it could easily make the difference between hitting the cost cap or not.
And setting all of that aside, this is about racing. Bragging rights matter and where a team finishes in the championship is a matter of pride. No-one wants to finish second, but if you can finish sixth at best, you would always rather be sixth than seventh. If you decide not to try so hard in order to get more aero testing, that’s bad for morale and could have a negative impact on your entire workforce.
The most important battle in the constructors’ championship is between Mercedes and Ferrari. Before the Brazilian Grand Prix, finishing second was a long-shot for Mercedes, but its one-two finish at Interlagos and the 21-point swing against Ferrari has made this much more interesting.
Ferrari will desperately want to hang onto second, while for Mercedes coming through to second after the season it has had will feel something like a win even after all the successes of the previous eight years. The extra windtunnel and CFD research time will be helpful for both and they hardly need the money, but credibility matters.
Alpine has the same advantage over McLaren in the battle for fourth, although realistically 19 points is worth more in the midfield given the difficulty of racking up that many points. McLaren has only managed 19 points or better twice this season, so even if Alpine has a disaster it’s hard to see that position changing.
These teams are some way away from being championship contenders, but both see themselves as the next team to join F1’s big three. This is just a point along that road, but given how tightly-fought this battle is you can be sure both want to win it.
Further down the order, Alfa Romeo is desperately trying to hang onto sixth ahead of Aston Martin. It has been 10 years since the Sauber operation that runs as Alfa Romeo has finished so high up the standings, so you can be sure it will want to keep the place. The floor and front wing updates that were recently introduced have also made the car a top-10 contender after a run of scoring just one point in 10 races.
Given the amount of money Lawrence Stroll has invested, you can also be certain Aston Martin will want to bring that extra eight-figure sum into the team. It’s a team that has long prided itself on efficiency and with the new factory being built I’m sure it could use the extra cash.
In the lower reaches of the table, Haas holds eighth by two points ahead of AlphaTauri. Both should have scored more points this season and perhaps even been in that sixth-place battle given how fast the cars have been. But the consistency has been poor.
For Haas, eighth would be a good result after three poor seasons, while AlphaTauri is under pressure to salvage that extra cash given its status as Red Bull’s second team.
So all of these teams have strong motivation to finish ahead of their direct rivals. Yes, there’s a good consolation prize there, but if you were a team principal what would you do?
You could brief your drivers to go for it at all costs or keep it clean, but it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to underperform deliberately to finish lower in the championship.
What’s more, there are plenty of drivers out there – Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll to name a few – who have recently been in the wars and it might be a waste of time talking to them.
