The High Cost of F1 Wrecks: A Look into the Expensive Consequences of a Single Accident

In Formula One, wrecks are an unfortunate reality of the sport, but they come with a hefty price tag. The cost cap era, which limits teams to spending $145 million per year, has brought about a new level of scrutiny and financial burden when accidents occur.

It's not just the loss of championship points that hurts, it's also the cold, hard cash that can be lost in the blink of an eye. In 2021, the stakes were higher than ever, with both Verstappen and Hamilton facing stiff competition for the top spot.

When a big accident happens, teams are left scrambling to find spare change, wondering who will foot the bill. It's a daunting task, especially when you consider the limited budget of $145 million per year.

That's why we brought in our very own F1 expert, Scott Mansell from Driver 61, to help us make sense of it all. Scott is here to give us an inside look at what goes into making those expensive wrecks happen and, more importantly, why they occur in the first place.

Scott's expertise will undoubtedly shed some light on this topic, but we're also excited to have a chat about his unique situation - how he agreed to help without any compensation. It's almost as if he was doing it for free, much to our surprise!

Big thanks go out to Omaze for sponsoring today's video, and one lucky winner will even get their hands on the Mercedes AMG GT Stealth. With its sleek design and powerful performance, this car is sure to be a head-turner.

But before we dive into Scott's insights, let's take a quick look at the Mercedes AMG GT Stealth. This everyday car has it all - diamond quilting, micro suede wheels with black spokes, and top-notch performance. Every donation made goes towards Metallica's All Within My Hands foundation, which supports work-for-need education, fights hunger, and does much more.

Now that we've got our car fix, let's get to Scott! What brings you here today, and how do you feel about tackling this topic for free?

Scotty boy, welcome to the channel. Let's go!

Thanks again to Omaze for making this possible, and to all our viewers out there who have contributed to Metallica's cause - keep on donating!

So, Doug, what's going on? You seem a bit down in the dumps today.

I just wanted to come up and apologize for my behavior this campaign. I'm trying to be better, really, but lately, I've been feeling really lonely.

Are you crying?

A little bit, yes... No, wait, that's not it. It's more like... I realize now you guys are the closest things I have to friends. That's why I wanted to come and apologize for my behavior.

You know John Paul Sartre said something once: "Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is forced to choose."

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Formula One wrecks like the one at Monzawhere Verstappen did a burnout on Hamilton's head,it costs championshippoints in cold, hard cash.In 2021, those are bothmore precious than ever.There's close competitionfor the championship.And it's the first full seasonof the new cost cap era,meaning teams can onlyspend $145 million a year.When a big accidenthappens that sends themlooking through their couches for change,but also wondering whoshould pick up the bill.So today we're going to lookat the high cost of F1 wrecks,figure out why they're so expensive.And to figure out why these crashes happenin the first place we'vegot our very own F1 expertfrom the channel Driver 61, Scott Mansell,he's here to help us out.We needed help, he said, I can help you.We were like, are yousure you want to help us?He said, yeah, I'llhelp, you know, for free.And you were like, yeah, for free.And he's like for free,I'll do it for free.And we're like, thank youfor doing it for free.- (beep) sake, that's so annoying.- Scotty boy, welcome to the channel.Let's go.Big thanks to Omaze forsponsoring today's video.This is the Mercedes AMG GT Stealth.And one of you has the chanceto win it thanks to Omaze.Imagine sitting in this everyday,feeling those AMG performanceseats with diamond quilting,gripping that micro suedewheel with black spokesand to make it better,every donation you enterbenefits Metallica's allwithin my hands foundation,which supports workforceeducation, fights hunger,and does a whole lot more.Just go to omaze.com/donutmediato enter today.- Ta da.- Doug what's the matter?You don't have a explosiveentrance this time?- I just wanted to come up and apologizefor my behavior this campaign.I'm trying to be better reallybut I've been feeling reallylonely lately (whimpers).- Are you crying?- No. Yes. A little bit.I realize now you guysare the closest thingsI have to friends.It's like John Paul Sartre famously said,"Hell is other people."but he was wrong, okay?Hell is no older people (moans).- Doug, I didn't takeyou as a fan of Sartre.I love French philosophy.- You do?You didn't even pronounce his name right.(laughs)Well let's hang out afterwe tell these amazing peopleto go to Omaze.com/donutmediato enter for your chance to winthis amazing MercedesAMG GT Stealth edition.- And good luck.Directly or indirectly,nearly every F1 crash iscaused by the same thing.Nikita Mazepin.Oh, Mazepin burn.Okay, hang on, I misread this script.Nearly every crash iscaused by loss of grip.Sometimes that's becauseof road conditions,a tyre blowout or simply driver error.If a team is lucky, something minor,like a spin can cost aslittle as 2,700 bucks,the cost to replace flat spotted tyre.But because a single F1 carcan cost over $20 million,a big wreck can cause millions in damage.And this year that has a lotof teams pointing fingers.F1 bosses, like ChristianHorner, Toto Wolff,and Mattia Binotto have allcomplained about writingmillion dollar checks for damagecaused by other teams drivers.With the current cost cap,those complaints won'tbe stopping anytime soon.Oh no, they're gonna probablygonna ramp the heck up.But those big numbers mightnot be entirely accurate.There's no insurance andno lawsuits at stake here.So the teams can say whatever they wantabout who caused the accidentand how much it costs.So we're gonna keep them honest.We're going to break down the costof three formula onewrecks from the 2021 seasonand look at the individualparts that were damaged.And to help us understandwhy those wrecks happen,we've recruited someone who'sactually driven an F1 carScott Mansell of Driver 61.Wreck number one,Imola Russell versus Bottas.- So the first of thesevery expensive crasheswas during lap 31 at Imolaon a rapidly drying track.Russell was quickly catchingBottas on fairly new dry tyresand looking to gain a position.Now this phase of a wet race is trickyas a dry racing line form,slick tyres are faster on the whole,but if you stray even an inch offline,things can go wrong very quickly.Russell was clearly quickenough to catch Bottas,but had to venture onto thewet line to make the pass.And yes, Bottas squeezed in,but it's what we wouldall do when defendingin this position.This meant Russell's rear tyre touchedthe slippery white lineand so smashed intothe side of Bottas.Now I put the blamemostly on Russell here.It was his call to make the move.And ultimately it was hismistake that caused the crash.So what about the impact?Well, the first impact was side-onand once there's contact like this,you have very little control over the carand whilst no crash at180 miles an hour is fun,the difference in speedbetween the two carswasn't too high when they touched.However, it rendered both carswithout brakes and steeringand slick sliding sideways on a wet trackwill do very little toslow a car at this speed.Both drivers instinctivelysteered into skid,but it does almost nothing.And at this point theyare sliding at around160 miles an hour straighttowards the barrier.- Russell initially said,this wasn't his fault,but later took responsibilityand Bottas' seat at Mercedes.So I guess the team couldn'thave been that mad about it,even though they claimedhe caused 1.3 millionbones in damage, but we all know Williams.They can't front that.So let's see if thatnumber really checks out.The car to car contactcertainly caused some damage,but what happened next iswhere things get expensive.The collision pushedthe Mercedes off trackand its front right, hit the wall,separating the wheel, snappingpart of the front suspensionand taking out the front wing.Wheel separation is a commonoccurrence in F1 accidents.And it's almost never becausea wheel nut falls off.When it happens, it'sbecause the entire assembly,including the hub, breaksand bearings, they come looseoften with suspensionfragments still attached.The cost of that wheel separation thoughabout $2,000 for the wheel and tyre,1,500 for the wheel bearing,15,000 for the hub and brake assemblyor around 18,500 total.It's really hard to estimatethe cost of broken suspension componentslike the ones in Bottas' first impactbecause F1 suspensionis incredibly complex.I should add that exactdollar amounts for F1 partsare hard to come by.You can't find this stuff at AutoZone.Some of those are the inboard parts,expensive stuff like dampers and springsthat are safely hiddenbehind the bodywork.These likely wouldn't have been damagedin the initial impact.The wishbones, pushrodsand track rods for steeringconnect inboard components to the wheelsand these are what breakin a wheel separation.Mercedes says suspension isone of the most expensivesystems in F1, but much ofthat is in development cost.The best estimates we couldfind for the parts themselveswere between a 100,000 and 150,000for an entire car's complete suspension.A similar problem occurs whenwe look at front wing cost.The wing and nose cone on anF1 car are a single assembly,which costs about $140,000.It's one of the few parts that's designedto be replaceable during a pit stopbecause front wings get damaged a lot.Small impacts with curvesand contact with other carscan cause enough damage todisrupt the aerodynamicsof the car and necessitate a quick change.The wing itself is actually composedof up to five individualaerodynamic elements per side,plus the end caps and afew other small components,given it over a hundred settings.Wings aren't designedto absorb lateral forceslike those which occur in an impact,but the cost of individualsuspension componentsand wing elements doesn't matter herebecause in Bottas' second impact,those parts were completely destroyed.With the wheels separated,the car slid on its floor,across the track andthrough the gravel trapbefore hitting the outside wall, head-on.The floor and barge boards,those are the small aerodynamic partsbehind the front wheels.They cost $141,000.The front wing and nose conewas completely destroyedin that second impact.So there's another $140,000.The remainder of the front suspensionincluding the inboardcomponents are destroyed.So that's around $75,000 andthe other front wheel assemblywas destroyed for another $18,500.But the big one here is tocar's monocoque chassis,also known as the survival cell.That's the central structureof a formula one car,which everything attaches to.It's made of as many as 12layers of carbon compositesupplemented with aluminumhoneycomb, Kevlar,and Nomex for fire resistance.It's the reason whyBottas was alive and wellafter the double impact.An F1 survival cell takes thedamage so the driver doesn't,and that means once a chassisis in a significant wreck,it can't be used for safety reasons.The cost of that $707,000,which is a bargainconsidering how many driversthese chassis save every year.Even though the engine isburied deep in the car,it is actually much morevulnerable than you might think.The rear wheels are veryexposed and you can seethat both the Williams andMerc take a significant damageto the rear end.Now on an F1 car, the reardiff is built into the gearbox,which in turn is attached to the engine.So side on impacts on the rear wheelscan smash the driveshaftinto the gearbox differentialand cause significant damage.Not only to the gearbox,but to the engine too.And we saw this with Mercedes,where they were worriedabout engine damageon Bottas' car.Mercedes said this accidentcaused 1.3 million in damage.Our tally is at 1.1 million,but other systems are oftendamaged in a head-on impact too.The pedal assembly,that costs 9,600 bucks.The steering wheel is $50,000.Electrical systems were likely damagedand the car's wiringharness alone, 34,500 bucks.Hydraulic systems runthroughout the entire car,controlling things likebreaking and the clutchand that complete system costs $150,000.So another 200 grandisn't much of a stretch.Even with all that damage,the car wasn't a totalwrite-off according to Wolff.If that much damage hadbeen done to your car,what insurances would've paidfor it, if you have insurance,you should get insurance.But the most expensive part of an F1 car,the engine was undamaged.Exactly how expensive that engine is,we'll see in a moment when we talk aboutwhat happened in Hungary,but first we need to takea look at the accidenteveryone was talkingabout after Silverstone.Wreck number two,Lewis and Max.- After a brilliant start,Max got around Lewis going into turn one.They then battled throughthe next half a lapuntil the old start finishstraight at Silverstone.Copse is the next corner.It's a really fastright-hander in these carsat the start of a race.It's a brush on thebrakes and down one gear.So with such a small breaking zone,Lewis knew he had to get alongside Maxto be in with a shot of the pass.Max knew this too, a movetowards the pit wall to defend.However, he didn't want tocover right to the insideas this would have lefttoo much room on the leftfor Lewis to just drivearound the outside,carrying the speed towardsMaggotts and Becketts,the next series of turns.So Hamilton saw his shotand put his Mercedesin the tiny gap betweenthat and the pit wall.It was really close racing.Now Max knew Lewis had theinside and made the decisionto move to the left againand open up the corner,hoping to carry the speed around Lewisand make it to the next turn firstand well, this is where it all went wrong.Max turned in and had toleave space for Hamilton.And to be fair, he left morethan a car's width of room on the inside.Considering on a normal lap,the cars are all over that inside curb.But the problem here is thatthe cars are heavy with fuelat this point in the race.The tyres aren't fully warm yet,and both cars had been offthe normal racing line,leading up to this andapproaching the cornerfrom an unusual angle.Both cars broke later than usualand Hamilton miscalculated.He understeered wide, not by muchbut enough to clip Verstappen.And I put the blame forthis one on Hamilton.He made the move and tried to carry injust a little bit too much speed.Now, some people have been saying that Maxshould have left moreroom, but I wouldn't have,if I were in that position.If you go too wide,you essentially make the corner sharperbleeding off speed andgive yourself no chanceinto the next sequence of corners.Anyway, the resulting impactbetween Lewis's front leftand Max's rear right tyre was small,but in such a high load corner,this sent Max spinning out of control.At Silverstone, there is adecent amount of tarmac runoffon the outside of Copsewhere Max will have bled off some speed.Then the gravel track wouldhave bled off a little bit more,but this is still 170miles an hour corner.The vast majority ofthe deceleration happenswhen Max hits the tyre wall side onmissing the slightlycomfier Techpro barrier,just a few meters away.He went from over 150miles an hour to zeroin about a meter and a half.That's over 50 G.And that is somethingonly a handful of peoplehave ever felt.- Christian Horner saidthis one cost 1.8 million.So let's see what we come up with.When the left rear of Verstappen's carhit the edge of the track surface,the force pulled the tyre off of the rim,leaving the car sliding on its floor,across the pave runoff and gravel trapto the tune of $141,000 in damage.The car impacted the tyrewall and its right sidesliding partially underneathit before bouncing back out.Like the Bottas crash,that impact took outtwo wheel assemblies for 37 grand.Half of the suspension for 75 grandand the front wing for another 140 grand.And yet another similarityto the Bottas crash.The chassis was almost certainly unusable.It did its job and saved Max's life.And Red Bull is happy tospend another $707,000to keep him around.So, so far this wreck lookspretty similar in cost,compared to Bottas' Imola incident.So why did Red Bull claim it costhalf a million dollarsmore or really 600,000?But you know, we liketo round around here.While sliding under the tyre walltook out the rear wing too,even though the rear winghas fewer parts in the front.The cost of that is around $150,000.That's because of theintegrated electronicand hydraulic systems neededfor the drag reduction systemD-R-S.That's the flap thatopens to reduce downforcefor easier passing.But the big reason thiswas more than Bottas' crashis because the rear of Verstappen's carwas damaged in the impact.That affected the driveshafts,which are 9,600 bucks eachand the gearbox, which costs $354,000.By our own calculationthat puts the total costat $1.823 million.I believe they said 1.8 million.We said 1.82, (smooch sound)not bad for a familyfriendly YouTube channel.Amazingly though, that'sstill not a write-offor at least that's what RedBull thought at the time.It wasn't until practice and qualifyingfor the next race at Hungarywhen they reused the sameengine from Silverstonethat they'd noticed a problem.Engine was replaced, andin an official statementthe team said the problemmight have developedover the course of the weekend,likely to be an after-effectof the Silverstone crash.So Red Bull stoppedshort of entyrely blamingthe engine failure on Mercedes,but in a different accident at HungaryFerrari team boss, Mattia Binotto,didn't hesitate to blame Aston Martinfor Leclerc's engine failure.After Lance Stroll ran on into him.Wreck three,Hungry everyone versus everyone,but mostly Stroll versus Leclerc.- This one was absolute carnageand all started by Valtteri Bottas.The track was wet,so all of the cars started onthe intermediate rain tyre,making it really trickyto get a good start.Unfortunately, Bottas got a bad startgetting immediately overtakenby Norris on his rightand Perez on his left.Now he's following these twocars just in front of himin the spray and has topick his breaking point.And when the track is wet,it's even harder than normalto pick the right breaking point.Granted the cars have alldone a few green flag laps,where they would have beentesting at the grip on track,but picking the right spotcould be the differencebetween overtaking, beingovertaken, or worse crashing out.Anyway, Bottas gets on thebrakes a little too late.And once he's done that, thereis nothing else he can do.Once you're coming in toohot and you lock the brakesand you have the dirtyair from the car in front,there is little you can do tomake the situation any better.He then smashes into Norrisripping off his front left wheeland leaving him witheven less stopping power.This is one of thereasons it's often betterto be on the outside at astart, especially in the wet.If you make a mistake on the outside,you usually don't take anyone with you.Bottas' mistake thenstarts a chain reactionwhere Norris hits Verstappenand Bottas takes out Perez.But what was bizarre wasthat behind a very similar,but unrelated accident happens.This time it's Strollthat goes in too hard.He sees the car slowing ahead,but doesn't break quite as hard,perhaps underestimatingthe grip available.Stroll quickly realizes thathe's going to run out of room.So he dives to the inside,hoping that the extra spacewill allow him to slow down,but unfortunately not.And he smashes into the Leclercwho then wipes out Ricardotaking our crash tally toa total of nine cars hitat turn one.That sounds very expensive.- The turn one incidentat Hungary involveda total of nine cars,including Verstappen,who re-entered the racewith his car partiallyheld together by duct tape.That stuff's great.Charles Leclerc wasn't so luckyeven though his wheel suspension,front and rear wings were all intact,Stroll's Aston Martin hadpunched through the carbon fiberof the Ferrari side pod.An F1 car side pod serveaerodynamic purposes,but they also channel airacross the engine's radiatorsand protect fragileparts of the power unit.Damage like Leclerc's would meanthe engine can't cool properlyand couldn't return to the race.But Ferrari claims thedamage from that accidentmade the engine a complete write-off.It was no longer usableand had to be replaced.So what does an engine cost?Well, there are only fourengine constructors in F1,including Ferrari.Those constructors sellengines to customer teamsthat don't build their own.And that price is regulated by the FAA.Limited to just 12 millioneuros or 14 to 15 million USD.According to F1 Chief TechnicalDirector, Pat Symonds,no team actually pays that little.And once the necessary extrasnot covered by the regulations are addedthat price climbs to 18.3 million.So the power unit isthe primary reason whyan F1 car can cost over $20 million.Of course, Ferrari doesn'thave to buy engines.So it may cost less money forthem to replace a power unitmid season than what it wouldcost a team like Red Bull,but it still costs themchampionship points.Decades ago, teams would useone engine for qualifyingthen fit a fresh unit in for the race.More recently to reduce team spending,each car is only allowedthree complete power unitsin a given season.Once a team exceeds their allotted three,they take penaltiesstarting at 10 places backin the next race, or even further,depending on how much oftheir power unit is new.But Stroll hitting Leclercprobably didn't cost Ferrarias much as Binottowould like us to believeand replacing his engineprobably wasn't a major unplanned event.That's because new powerunits and taking penalties,it's all part of team strategies.Over half the cars usedon the grid have usedfour or more engines this seasonand Bottas is on number six.Ferrari was expected to swapto new power units anyways.Ever since they were bustedfor cheating in 2019,they've been constantlydeveloping their enginesand have been eager toimplement their latest,new and improved powerunits in the current cars.Ferrari can get away withblaming Aston Martin,because right now thereare no consequencesfor casting blame.There's no court cases and no insurance,but these conversations aregoing to get more heated.They will I promise you.F1 competition is closer than ever.And budgets will continue shrinking.It's 140 million next yearand a 135 million after that.Ultimately though, we're really luckywe can have all theseconversations at all,even in the worst accidents this year,nobody has gotten seriously injured,largely thanks to high costparts like the survival cell,which takes damage in awreck so the driver doesn't.- Big announcement, the DonutUnderground has a shirt now.Got a shirt.Now, if you don't alreadyknow the Donut Undergroundis our membership club for super fans.Members get access tobehind the scenes videos,a discord server, exclusivestickers, merch discounts.And now there's a shirt, a fricking shirtit's the same color wayas our new stickers,which members voted ona couple of months ago,you get input into what we make.The shirt is $25 and onlyavailable to Underground members.To find out how to join,click the join buttondown below on this videoor on our channel page or for iOS users,check out the link in the description.We've got our shirts.- So who pays in the end?Well, each respective team right now,you just get to point the finger and saythey were the reason theycaused it and sue them maybe,but they don't sue becauseit's a gentlemen sport baby.I wanna thank Scott forjoining us here on B2B,you don't know about hischannel, go check it out.There'll be a link inthe description below.If you like this type ofcontent hit like and subscribe,that really helps us out.That lets us know we're doing a good job.We want to keep making morehot content for you guys.You've got the Donut Underground.We got Instagram Donut Media.I have my own personalInstagram, Jeremiah Burton.I get I go on there and Iannoy my girlfriend a bunchand I make videos.So if you like seeing spouseannoyal videos hit me upand dog vids.Thank you guys so much forwatching until next week.Bye for now.