Ferrari wants leniency as budget cap looms

Dec.2 (GMM) Ferrari is pushing for leniency as the budget cap looms for 2021.

Big teams like Ferrari, with current budgets well above the $145 million allowed next year, will get a six-month period of leniency to minimise mass sackings.

But team boss Mattia Binotto says that is not enough for Ferrari, especially amid the ongoing covid pandemic.

“Knowing the covid situation, the fact is that it has been very difficult to dismiss people, to lay off people,” he said.

“Also in terms of message, I think it would be completely wrong to lay people off when we are in such a pandemic situation. We are still in an emergency situation,” Binotto insisted.

It is believed the Italian government also has measures in place to prevent mass layoffs amid the pandemic, and so Binotto says F1’s six-month leniency period “needs to be reviewed”.

“I think that, as a social responsibility, it would be very bad to businesspeople during covid – and knowing that we need to do it very soon – we don’t believe that would be the right approach,” said the Italian, who will join the Ferrari team in Bahrain this weekend after a two-race absence.

“So I would like to and I will discuss with the FIA and the other teams to understand if there is any possibility to accommodate what is still an emergency situation.

“Obviously we were trying to restructure our whole team. We are somehow trying to reallocate people to the road cars (operation) because we are still a very big company. But the solution is not obvious,” Binotto added.