The Formula 1 budget cap was designed to create healthier competition between the ten teams and make the sport more affordable for new teams, although there are now new barriers to entry for the likes of Andretti.
While the gap between the best and the worst teams is slowly closing, Red Bull Racing have been unstoppable for the last two seasons.
Speaking on The Race Podcast, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm believes one team have already put a large hole in their budget for this season just four races into the campaign.
Teams will already have one eye on starting development for the new regulations in 2026 as investing more money in their current cars has diminishing returns with each passing race.
Not only that but for the bottom five teams, it seems impossible that they’ll ever be able to catch Red Bull or Ferrari.
Therefore, any additional money they have to spend this season is only setting them back in the future.
So, when the red flag came out after just a few corners into the Japanese Grand Prix, all 10 team principals would have been hoping that when the dust settled, it wasn’t their car in the wall.
Unfortunately for Visa Cash App RB and Williams, it was their drivers who didn’t complete a single lap in Suzuka.
It was the last thing that Williams needed and the amount they’ve had to spend due to crash damage this season is already extortionate.
James Vowles was already pushing the limits on his team before the year even began and this has only set them back further.
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Williams racking up huge crash damage bill
When Williams arrived in Bahrain for pre-season, they hadn’t even completed a shakedown of the FW46.
There were mixed feelings from the drivers on whether it was a massive step forward from last year but the car did appear to be more balanced.
The problems started in Melbourne when Alex Albon destroyed his chassis during practice and was handed Logan Sargeant’s car for the rest of the weekend.
The American had something to prove in Japan but he put his car into the barriers before he’d completed his first lap in FP1.
Williams have been accruing plenty of crash damage during the first four races and still don’t have a spare chassis.
Vowles will be praying for a clean race in China given the bill they’re currently racking up.
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Williams patching up their cars with spare chassis still not available
Mitchell-Malm: “It [Alex Albon’s car] has to go back to Grove, that’s significant in itself because it’s another hefty freight job.
“Both cars should be going onto China from here but now one of them’s going to have to go back to Grove to be patched up.
“And as best as I can understand it because I know roughly where they were at after the first two crashes, that’s Albon’s in Melbourne and Sargeant’s in practice here, they were already pushing $2m worth of crash damage coming out of the budget cap.
“That’s repairs, parts, production but obviously freight cost in terms of the sort of emergency extra measures you need to take to get all of that sorted.
“So now, you’re probably looking at easily $2.5m [£2m] I’d imagine that’s coming out of Williams’s cost cap. They all have a provision in the cost cap, they build in that bit of a damage buffer, but I would imagine Williams is a very, very long way into that allowance now.
“And they’ve done in four races into the season, so this is borderline worst-case scenario especially when you factor in where they’ve happened. It’s an absolute nightmare!”
Williams on the back foot after a difficult winter
James Vowles has had plenty to deal with over the past few months and the recent damage caused by crash after crash is only adding to that stress.
Anthony Davidson has sympathy for the drivers, but both on and off the track, Williams still have a lot of catching up to do.
They haven’t scored a point this season and will hope Sauber and Alpine don’t beat them to their maiden top-ten finish.
The team were organising spare parts on an Excel document and Pat Fry believes their facilities are decades out of date.
Williams are suffering short-term pain in the hope that they’ll be a long-term success.
The post ‘Absolute nightmare’: F1 team now facing ‘worst-case scenario’ with new £2m dent in their budget – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.