Formula 1's increasingly prescriptive sporting and technical regulations have levelled the cost of actually contesting a world championship season.

Where once race team headcount levels were unrestricted and windtunnel hours uncontrolled, now curfews and limits on pit crews apply across the board - from Mercedes down to Manor - while aerodynamic activities have systematically been pegged back.

Supply and demand - and the fact that 90% of the teams are based within the United Kingdom's crescent-shaped 'F1 valley' - has provided an element of payroll parity (save for bonus structures and benefits), with migration within this close-knit labour force highlighting any anomalies. The equation is simple: he who pays least (or not at all, as the case may be), sits without personnel.