Britain has voted to leave the European Union in the recent referendum referred as Brexit. With eight out of the eleven teams on the Formula One grid owning factories within the United Kingdom, could the sport of Formula One be hurt by the country’s decision to leave the EU?
Currently, Ferrari and Toro Rosso are based in Italy, while Sauber is based in Switzerland. While the remaining teams on the grid are based in the United Kingdom. Seven of the twenty-one races on the calendar are held within countries which are members of the European Union.
Formula One supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, has suggested that the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union will have no impact on the sport. Ecclestone was a supporter of the movement to leave the European Union. Although the sport as a whole may not feel the consequences of Brexit, the British-based teams may.
As a result of the exit, the value of the Euro has dropped dramatically. Because of this, travel and accommodation costs for the teams and personnel may cost slightly more than expected. Although it probably won’t be enough to impact a team’s budget too much over the course of a weekend, the costs accumulated throughout the season could force minor budget cuts, especially from teams which are suffering financially.
In the near future, some teams may be interested in relocating their team facilities to a location within the European Union, if they find the increased overhead and administrative tasks are too much for the team to handle. Some of the factors that could cause teams to leave is the increased cost and paperwork to be completed when shipping their team freight to the various race weekends. Hiring workers could also prove to be more problematic and expensive than previous.
The impacts of Britain’s decision to the leave the European Union have yet to fully calculated and it won’t be accurately predicted until the exit is finalized, a process which could be extremely lengthy. The impact on Formula One could also be decreased depending on what agreements the British government is able to reach with the EU.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
