Steiner expecting trickle-down of top F1 staff under budget cap

Haas chief Gunther Steiner is expecting a trickle-down of staff from the top Formula 1 teams in the near future as they make cuts to come in line with the budget cap for 2021.

Teams will be restricted to a budget of $175 million per season from 2021 under the new financial regulations, albeit with certain exclusions such as driver salaries and wages for the top three executives.

Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are all known to be spending well above the planned budget cap, meaning widespread changes must be made in time for the 2021 season.

It is something that Haas F1 boss Steiner believes could result in many of their employees trickling down the grid to midfield teams.

“If they have to let staff go, that is people which need a new job - or they pay them this well they don’t need a new job, I don’t know about that one,” Steiner said.

“There will be a point where these people will knock on the door. But it didn’t happen yet.

“There are people still in denial I think. It’s a bit like racers are, we are in denial of everything until it happens.”

Haas currently operates well under the $175 million budget cap coming in for 2021, but Steiner said there are no plans to up its spending to meet this level, anticipating a reduction of the figure in the future.

“We said we’d stick with [the budget] we have got. We are quite conservative on these things,” Steiner said.

“We are doing what we are doing, and try to do it as good as possible. Because the next thing is, the teams that now increase, when it gets decreased again, they are the guys that cry about it, ‘oh we increased it’ - yeah, you knew it was coming.

“If you have no vision and you just do what is convenient at the moment, maybe that doesn’t work.”

Additional reporting by Julianne Cerasoli.