Dit komt uit een artikel van motorsport.com.
Al zijn het Wolff en Binotto, teambazen van de rechtstreekse concurrenten van Red Bull, de claims lijken mij niet overdreven, en het interview geeft een inzicht van wat mogelijk is met de som van een "minor breach"
Team principal Mattia Binotto admitted that it was not ideal that the 2021 championship battle was still being debated right now, but he said the significance of overspends should not be brushed under the carpet.
“It’s definitely a shame that we are talking about it in October of the following season, because at this point, apart from implications on last year’s championship, there are also implications for the current one,” he told Sky Italia.
“Let’s wait until Wednesday before making a judgement but, whatever amount we are talking about, it’s important to understand that even if it is four million, which falls into the category of what is considered a minor breach, four million is not minor.
“For us, four million represents the development parts for an entire season. Four million means 70 people in a technical department who can come up with and produce solutions that could be worth up to half a second a lap.
“So even if we are looking at something considered a minor breach it’s not peanuts.”
He added: “We are talking of half a second and that advantage is carried forward into subsequent seasons, because while it began in 2021, it still gives a competitive advantage in 2022 and 2023, so this is clearly an important matter.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff echoed Ferrari’s views on the significance of the upgrades, as he reckoned any extra spending had a direct impact in allowing teams to bring much more performance.
He said detailed analysis his squad had done about the car development programmes of rival teams suggested that one unnamed squad had been bringing much more than their rivals.
“Is it a so-called minor breach, because I think the word is probably not correct?” he said.
“If you're spending five million more, and you're still in the minor breach, it still has a big impact on the championship.
“To give you an idea, we obviously monitor closely which parts are being brought to the track from the top teams every single race – for the 2021 season and the 2022 season.
“We can see that there are two top teams that are just about the same and there is another team that spends more.
“We know exactly that we're spending: three and a half million a year in parts that we bring to the car. So then you can see what difference it makes to spend another $500,000. It would be a difference.
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