Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist
Converting "money then" to "money now" is a very imprecise art, depending on what you use as your base comparison. However I can offer a little insight. About 1980 Team Lotus was one of the dominant teams; not quite the Red Bull of the day, but close. The entire team consisted of 35 people. They built and prepared the cars in the stables of a country house. I was also told (though I have no way of knowing what was included or excluded) that it cost £30 per lap to run an F1 car.
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Thanks! I tried to do some back of napkin accounting to try to tease something out of the "£30 per lap" value.
When looking at the 1980 season, there were 889 race laps. Add in about 20 laps per event for practice and qualifying (no clue if that is even close to right value) and you get a high value of 1169 laps. That doesn't factor in testing laps/costs. The 889-1169 at £30 per lap that is then £26670-35070 per season. Rough inflation of 1980 £30 being about £161 today, that creates amounts of £143-188K in today money per season. Which sound VERY low to me. I am wondering if the £30 per lap is just base track consumables (fuel, lubricants, tires, brakes) and nothing else?
I think the staffing size is the better indicator of budget estimates. I expect facilities and associated other tooling is more (even factoring in inflation) today than it was then. In the end, the point is... it was likely MUCH cheaper to run a team then than now even when factoring in inflation.
Richard