Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner has dismissed Christian Horner's concerns that some teams may be forced to miss races later this year in order to spend below the budget cap. F1's budget cap was introduced last year in an effort to level the playing field and reduce the disparity in purchasing power between teams. Having started at $145 million in 2021, the cap is currently $140m, and is set to reduce further to $135m in 2023. Horner has suggested that up to seven teams may be forced to miss Grands Prix in 2022 unless the cap is increased. But Steiner has offered a different approach, insisting that some outfits in the paddock must find a way to make the budget cap work for them. "Our problem is not the budget cap, our problem is the cash budget, because we don't have more," Steiner told media, including RacingNews365.com . "In any business, when you have a cash problem, you cut your cloth accordingly, and so we need to get to the end of the season because we need to do it. "It's just like running a business. If you have to not do something in order to run the final four races, that's what we'll be doing."
Steiner not telling drivers to go easy
In addition to restricting development, the budget cap is also thought to be putting a financial strain on teams whose cars are heavily damaged in accidents. For Haas' part, Mick Schumacher has been involved in two big accidents already this year, including a dramatic crash at the Monaco Grand Prix in which his VF-22 split in two. "It's not very satisfactory having a big crash again. We need to see how we move forward from here," said Steiner of his charge's latest mishap. But the Austrian denied that F1's current financial realities had forced him to tell his drivers to race more cautiously in order to avoid accidents. "No, you cannot do that," Steiner commented. "Every driver doesn't think this much on the budget. He thinks about his own career, [and] if he keeps on crashing, he has no career. "A good racing driver gets to the limit, but not over the limit. "If you crash, you always know you're over the limit. So that's part of the job of the driver."
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