After the infamous accident between Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Silverstone Grand Prix, one of the things Red Bull was angry about (apart from the risk to its driver and the lost points) was the cost implication of the crash.

Repair bills in Formula 1 have always been high because of the bespoke and high-tech nature of the cars being raced, but this year especially, the price of a big crash could be worse than it ever has been, according to F1’s Sam Collins.

As Formula 1 has pushed to introduce cost caps in order to keep spending under control and encourage competition, teams at the upper end of the field with lots of money have been pushing up to the limits of their budgets. Despite leaving a little breathing room for repairs, big crashes like the one at Silverstone could be pushing them closer to their cost caps than they’re comfortable with.

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Since every part requires complex construction and perfect execution, developing and building each part costs a staggering amount. A big crash for Mercedes’ other driver, Valtteri Bottas, earlier this season is estimated to have cost the team $1 million.

Such are the constraints on the teams that Collins argues that, following Hamilton’s shunt with Verstappen at Silverstone, Mercedes may have decided to effectively tape a part on Hamilton’s wing back together rather than replace the whole front wing, as they would have done in the past, to save money.

Although teams are allowed to exceed their budget by 5 percent (the equivalent of around $7.5 million) if they suffer unexpected setbacks that it wouldn’t be reasonable to budget for, they depend on the FIA to approve that. If the FIA doesn’t approve the extra expenses or they go over their budget anyway, they then have to dip into the next season’s budget.

For teams like Red Bull and Mercedes that are locked in a heated battle in which every dollar counts, and heading into a season with major vehicle design changes, being forced to spend some of next year’s budget this year is literally mortgaging your future – and no team wants to do that.