Dec.13 (GMM) F1 teams admit they are worried about the Brexit crisis that is occurring in Britain.
After British people voted in 2016 to leave the European Union, the situation is now in crisis with prime minister Theresa May’s exit deal and party leadership in tatters.
If there is no deal in place by March 29 next year, Britain will leave the EU amid unprecedented uncertainty about the future.
Most F1 teams are based in England, including top teams Mercedes and Red Bull.
When asked about the Brexit crisis, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “We are monitoring it very closely because we have a large operation in the UK.
“We have EU citizens working for us, we are importing lots of goods from the EU and we have taken steps to make sure they are not stuck on the border. Overall, not a very pleasant development,” he added.
The French works team Renault is also based in England, leaving boss Cyril Abiteboul concerned “in particular about the movement of goods and people”.
“We’ve developed very quickly in recent years and it’s been done in particular thanks to the possibilities offered by the UK, bringing in youngsters, people coming out from school, and we don’t want that to change,” he said.
“That would be dramatic for formula one, but I have full trust in the authorities of Great Britain to understand this is not in their interest to lose what is one of the pillars of British industry.”
Christian Horner, boss of the Milton Keynes based Red Bull team, said he is positive a good solution will be found in the end.
“I think the bottom line is that people will continue to do business with the UK if we’re competitive and remain good at what we do,” he said.
“There’s obviously some turbulence around at the moment but hopefully, in the coming weeks and months, there will be a solution found.”
However, Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene thinks Brexit could be a perfect opportunity for the Italian team to capture some British talent.
“If everything is going in the direction that is announced at the moment, I suspect that in the near future we will find a lot of people knocking on the door of Maranello,” he said.
“But talking about formula one overall, it’s not really the best scenario so I hope they find a solution.”