George Russell has revealed that his dream of collecting Formula 1 cars has been thwarted by the current FIA regulations, which impose a strict budget cap on teams in the category. In recent years, old F1 cars, especially models from the 90s, have been sold for millions of dollars at auctions. Famous examples include Michael Schumacher’s Benetton and Ayrton Senna’s McLaren. However, the more modern cars in the category rarely appear outside of tracks or museums, and this is largely due to the budget limitations imposed on teams.
According to Russell, F1 teams are producing fewer and fewer monocoques, the central structures of the cars, due to the budget cap. Before the implementation of this rule, teams used to produce between fifteen and twenty monocoques per season, but now the number has dropped to just three or four per year: “I would love to collect my own Formula 1 cars, but due to the budget cap, teams now produce only three or four monocoques per year,” Russell stated.
The last person to receive a modern F1 car was Carlos Sainz, who was given his 2022 SF-75, the car with which he achieved his first victory, as a farewell gift from Ferrari.
Russell tried to negotiate an F1 car for himself during his last contract negotiations with Mercedes, but was unsuccessful: “I tried to get a Formula 1 car during my last contract negotiation, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out,” the German team’s driver added.
Still, Russell remains hopeful that the FIA may review the budget cap regulation to allow teams to build additional monocoques for non-competitive purposes, such as preservation or display: “I would like to see a way for teams to produce monocoques outside of the budget cap,” he said, suggesting that there are sufficient resources for other components, such as engines, rear and front wings, but that monocoque production remains limited.
