Wow that is pretty high. Does that include drivers salaries?
F1 budget cap is 215millions. Imagine what ROI a team could get from that. WRC is just too expensive for teams.
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2026 WRC News & Rumours
- Thread starter PLuto
- Start date
F1 budget cap is 215millions. Imagine what ROI a team could get from that. WRC is just too expensive for teams.
I hope it does, it's crazy high. If this is only half way through it shows which mountain the "tuners" have to climb. In my oppinion there is no way around a cap, other solutions are always bandaids
Looking at the last Evans' crash and soon afterward when he try to drove off he hit a canal. And suddenly there was 20+ people around him trying to help. Where in the any other sports can be done that? Rallying have this advantage. Also without fan footage, there wouldn't be most incidents ever recorded. What sport does that you can drive on a public road behind world champion in his racing car? Again rally have this advantage. Many other, I mean most of other motosports have this closed system, but rallying is quite unique and sadly promotion didn't take this opportunity to have something that F1 or WEC can't have. Both disciplines have huge success and both are pretty much closed, unless you pay big ampunts of money just to see them pass somewhere very far away, while in rallying you can drive anywhere and see action from different points, sometimes very cheap or even for free (there are points where they do not charge extra tickets). I mean this is one unique advantage which could be a thing to work on further, which others will never have. Also, one commnet did came to my mind when Ostberg drove in Sweden, he was smilling at the stage interview mentioning that he could smell sausages when he get past some fans and he became hungry. That's why I love rallying, it's a complete different athmosphere. Also weather, conditions, all kinds of surface, unpredictably, drama around broken cars, when crews leave immediately to try to fix the issues by themselves.
We focus too much on "costs", but we should (with that I mean, I, you, everyone, who is trying to present this sport to new fans) tell exactly this... This awesome concept around rallying is build on.
And details leave to us, super hardcore fans.
We focus too much on "costs", but we should (with that I mean, I, you, everyone, who is trying to present this sport to new fans) tell exactly this... This awesome concept around rallying is build on.
And details leave to us, super hardcore fans.
Yup the budget cap was a game changer for F1 and made the teams sustainable for the first time in the F1 history. Which led to insane value gain. Back in days teams were burning money as a marketing tool, now they not only make money, but also can sell the team for more money than they ever invested. Also the popularity means insane prize money, in 2025 it was over 1.25 billion.
In F1 it's mainly the popularity combined with the budget cap, which plays into multiple factors: Popularity means interest of sponsors, which means that pretty much all the teams are able to cover the budget from the sponsorship money and prize money because the budget is set, and the days of some teams investing 600 millions per year while others just 40 millions.
Haas is probably the only team that operates well under the cost cap, but even they started to invest into the operation above the bare minimum and make they own development instead of outsourcing everything to Dallara and Ferrari. Audi and Cadillac are also probably putting money into operational costs, besides the infrastructure investments.
Limited grid space means the value of the teams is insane. Average value is 3.6 billion – Ferrari is valued to around 6.4b, while Haas around 1.5b. It's pretty much impossible to get into F1 other way than buying an existing team, it's a miracle that Cadillac was able to do so, and it costed them over 1b and backstage politics that involved FBI and nearly started a war between F1 and FIA.
Still, it's important to say that it may be a sort of bubble (but I don't think it is tbf). After all back in days teams were selling for 1 pound, Mercedes/INEOS/Toto Wolff got the Brawn GP for around 120 millions in 2010, Stroll got Force India for around 100 milion pounds (buy out of assets inc. debts) in 2018. Both just the fraction of money they had to pour into operational costs.
The economical state of F1 is insane. Kind of miracle. While it's partly thanks to the bunch of favorable factors, the budget cap is definitely one of the most important. So a budget cap won't make WRC profitable itself, but could definitely help get closer to it.
Agree for the lower classes, there the cars should indeed be affordable (and everything around it). How to execute on this is a hard problem though. Motorsport is inheritly expensive today, see how much a full karting season costs now
But at which time was it ever like this? Maybe for the lowest grass roots class, but definitely not for the top class. Group B, Group A, WRC was all incredible expensive. One could assume that we are less expensive now since the big spender sponsors (tobacco & licor) are gone
You can't compare value between different decades. 50k pounds in 1990 is in value equal to 127.4k pounds today (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator). And that would get you something from the higher price end of Rally3 or very low end of Rally2/R5.
So a homebuilt rally car vs Rally3...
It's easy when you understand nobody wants that in international rallying
Really? I remember 80% of the entry list being like that till the 2000s. N4s, dealer built A8s, garage built A7s and N3s and literally backyard assembled A6s and A0s... Literally everyone except the 10-15 factory guys...
Good for the 20th century
But in 2026 it's not desired by dealers, manufacturers, lawmakers, policymakers, insurers, or in international rally championships by the FIA or promoter.Then enjoy the Toyota Cup, until they get bored and jump to F1...Good for the 20th century
Sorry for crushing your dreams, I only deal in reality however miserable it is.
skarderud
Senior member
That is a good possibility, all F1 races in the area has been cancelled, and nothing is sure if its going to be real peace there as long dementia-Don, evil-Ben and the religious-extremists in Iran is around.
I've heard that it will be decided in September. But it doesn't look realistic for Saudi rally to take a place.
F1 are saying that the season may end in Europe instead of Qatar and UAE. Bahrain round got replaced by Malaysia, replacement for Saudi wasn't announced yet, but nobody expected the replacement round to take place in Saudi.
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Eli
Senior member
I wish FIA would break the rules for once, say, you can have any engine displacement you like (with or without turbo, I know I know), it only has to have 4WD, and power delivery say 400-425BHP (‘cause I mean, come on, after a decade of 380…) and then for instance, have an Audi RS3 compete alongside other hot hatches or if BMW were to come along and say, “you know what? we wanna be real stupid and promote our Z4” and have it compete in the WRC, how cool would that be?
Eli
Senior member
No way for Scotland to come over a year earlier ey? or have a tarmac round like Ypres (No Monza pleaseeee).