Windsor: "They may then decide to leave for another team"

This year, a budget cap will be introduced in Formula 1. For 2021, that cap is $145,000,000, and this amount will continue to decrease in the coming years.

Good news for the smaller teams that don't have the resources to develop like the top teams. But do the big teams really lose out that much? Peter Windsor discusses it in a video on his YouTube channel.

Budget cap less detrimental to top teams than it seems?

"It seems unlikely to me. It would take ten years to reverse the lead in technical development. The winning teams, Mercedes and Red Bull, have developed and integrated incredibly complex software systems. There's no way those are going to disappear," Windsor says.

In addition, not all costs are included in the budget ceiling, such as the salaries of team bosses and drivers. This, in turn, is an advantage for the top teams. Windsor is more concerned about the engineers, who do get paid out of the budget.

"Engineers can't earn a big salary in the future. Someone like Adrian Newey is probably among the top three whose salaries are not paid from the budget. But people like James Key or Andy Green are probably not among them, which means their salaries are probably fixed for a long time. They can then decide to leave for another team, where they do become one of the three top men," Windsor concludes.