in fairness its just two teams.
who can hope to match the funding of Merc and Ferrari and if Ferrari lose their special payments then arguably its just Merc no?
will have to see if RBR-Honda are up to spend as much as Merc and Ferrari.
Renault, while spending more year on year, dont seem as keen to hit Merc's budget.
anyways, if we genuinely had 4 teams capable of winning a title...rather if we had 4 teams at the top with similar budgets, we (well myself anyways) would probably not care as much about budgets or the financial health of the smaller teams. there would be more than enough competition at the sharp end.
but its not that so yeah they need to worry about creating the illusion of competition and you cant do that when all but 6 cars are getting lapped by the first round of pit stops. an exaggeration of course but not far from the truth given how many cars fail to finish a race on the lead lap.
so indeed, how can one be expected to compete against mature teams that have years if not decades of making capital improvements to their facilities and the annual budget to make use of those facilities?
the fact that a well funded independent (outside of the RBs of course) are becoming unicorns surely just highlights the need for more favorable commercial deals..whether that be prize money, price caps on engines, greater use of parts designed by a patron team. it certainly doesnt detract from the idea.
to each their own of course but i dont think it cheapens the sport at all.
Haas' and Sauber's success this year, FI over the last few years...for me these have been the highlights of recent seasons and all of it aided by more favorable supply deals from a 'master' team.
these have arguably been F1's most successful story lines. encouraging this is not grasping at straws imo.
plus its better for the drivers in those small teams!
