Schumacher fears ‘big’ teams also in trouble

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher is concerned that the ongoing coronavirus crisis won’t only hurt Formula 1’s smaller teams, but also the “bigger ones”.

With the first eight races of this year’s championship either postponed or cancelled, and no idea whether the season will get underway in Montreal in June, the Formula 1 are losing millions.

According to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, every five missed grands prix is worth “100 million” to the teams.

This has raised fears about whether some of the sport’s smaller teams, such as Williams and Haas, will not survive the season.

Formula 1 has taken steps to negate some of the damage by announcing that this year’s chassis will be raced next season while the teams are also considering freezing other components.

The 2021 regulation changes, at least the technical side of those, has been deferred to 2022.

That means all the teams will be designing their 2022 cars under the budget cap.

However, Schumacher admits he is worried that even those decisions won’t be enough.

“For the time being, we shouldn’t worry only about the smaller teams, but also about the bigger ones,” judge13 reports the German as having told Sky TV.

“It’s difficult to predict what will happen and they will have to save themselves first.

“We’re talking about thousands of employees, hundreds of families who are going to be in trouble.

“Sports issues take a back seat. I think a team like Ferrari has other concerns than hoping that the race can resume in July.

“We can only hope that this will soon be behind us.”

At the moment Formula 1 has the season starting in mid-June with the Canadian Grand Prix but race organisers are expected to make an announcement on their plans in the next two weeks.

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