Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri maintains his company will approach the 2020 season as any other, despite the looming regulation changes in 2021 and associated cost cap.
Speaking in a conference call with investors on Tuesday, Camilleri stressed Ferrari’s mission this year is as ever, to win.
“This year will prove to be quite critical in terms of Formula 1. Our ambition remains as always, to seek to win. And that’s [why] we will continue to invest in our infrastructure, resources and technological creativity as we continue to develop our 2020 car as the season unfolds,” he said.
Asked whether this would change should the Scuderia fall behind, particularly with additional resources needing to be dedicated to the 2021 car, Camilleri was adamant it wouldn’t.
“We never give up and our ambition is to win. And therefore, I don’t think we’ll put our foot off the pedal in terms of Formula 1 in 2020 or beyond.”
That said, Camilleri admitted 2020 will be a year like no other in a financial sense.
“The new technical regulations that will come into force in 2021 will entail the development of our very substantially different car, which will obviously require additional resources and expenditures already this year.”
“[We’re] sort of doubling up because we have to work on a totally brand new car as opposed to developing one.”
“You should assume that in 2021 and thereafter, the Formula 1 cars [cost] should come down, not least of which because of the budget cap [counting] for a big portion of the car itself.”
A widely-held assumption in the paddock, Camilleri’s statement would seem to confirm the wealthier F1 teams are expecting to maintain their development advantage going forwards despite the budget cap, at least in the short term.
Just yesterday, we reported that McLaren’s Andreas Seidl does not expect his team to be winning races before 2023, and if Camilleri is to be believed, it will indeed be difficult to compete any earlier.