Revealed: The heavy impact of Racing Bulls' $20million hit

Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer has outlined the penalty his team has paid for missing out on its F1 constructors' championship aims.

After finishing eighth in the standings in 2023, under new team principal Laurent Mekies, and with Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda as its high-profile driver pairing, the ambition was to naturally improve last season.

Heading into the summer break, the team known as RB, or VCARB, was lying sixth, seven points clear of Haas, and 20 ahead of struggling Alpine.

But just as RB hit a barren spell, Haas eventually turned a corner, whilst Alpine delivered a freak result out of the atrocious conditions that struck the São Paulo Grand Prix in which Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finished second and third respectively.

RB's sixth-placed hopes lay in ruins, leading to the team again finishing eighth and watching a $20 million windfall disappear. That was the difference in prize money last year between sixth and eighth positions in the constructors'.

As Bayer pointed out, "that has an impact", initially for all the staff as with any other team, Racing Bulls operates a salary-plus-bonus scheme, with the latter payment dependent on finishing position.

Speaking to RacingNews365, Bayer added: "We have ambitious plans for the team. Something we haven't been able to do yet, mostly due to financial reasons but also due to limitations on the PU side, is TPCs."

That relates to the Testing of Previous Cars regulation, which allows teams to run a car at least two years old. It allows young drivers to get up to speed quicker with F1 machinery and the more experienced drivers an opportunity to fine-tune details.

"You see all the big teams now, and Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli are the best example, with kids sitting in a car almost every weekend," said Bayer.

"There were plenty of teams testing on current F1 tracks throughout the season. You can say what you want, but it does give you an advantage of knowing the track, and of the team being well prepared.

"The car is maybe not the same, but still you're going at F1 speed. It's important.

"Things like that, those extras, everything that comes on top of the must-haves, they are directly impacted by such a budget reduction that comes with a loss of prize money."

Racing Bulls in 'saving mode'

For Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar, it means there will be no TPC programme that will allow last year's F2 runner-up to become acquainted with an F1 car, or on procedures with his engineering team this year.

Bayer has outlined other key areas where the prize-money shortfall has an impact.

"On the marketing side, we would want to do more in terms of activations outside of the paddock, something that, as a team, we have always done," added Bayer.

"For example, in Vegas, we hosted our garage sessions, a party outside of the track, opening up Formula 1 to fans, democratising the sport.

"Liam [Lawson] and Yuki both went there, it was a party location in downtown Vegas, somewhere you would never, ever see a Formula 1 driver, but those things do cost money.

"If we have to go into saving mode to protect the performance side, then those things might suffer."

Then referring to the team's Faenza headquarters, he added: "I'm also looking at the facility.

"I've a couple of ideas on how to extend the facility. We should renovate the old Minardi building. We need to do some work on that building.

"It's those bits that will be affected, definitely."