Another Formula 1 team has joined the growing opposition to Liberty Media’s plan to ban teams from using ‘virtual garages’.

Force India’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer described the proposal as “ridiculous” when asked about it by RaceFans at the French Grand Prix.

Virtual garages allow team members to contribute to their race weekend efforts remotely. Liberty Media says it wants to ban them to reduce costs and improve the quality of racing

However according to Szafnauer, banning virtual garages is unlikely to save money.

“Here’s the thing: What cost? We have the virtual garage already and so does everyone else,” he said.

“So what cost? That cost is sunk. Getting rid of it is only going to cost everyone. We already have it.”

Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff has previously described banning virtual garages as a “very bad idea”.

Teams are limited to a maximum of 60 paddock-based staff associated with the operation of the car during most of the race weekend. Force India uses less than that, so introducing a ban on virtual garages could lead them to bring more staff to each race.

The team’s technical director Andrew Green was not present at last weekend’s race in France but did work in their virtual garage.

“The people that we employ for that virtual garage are people that we already employ,” Szafnauer explained. “Andrew Greeen is the technical director. [He] isn’t employed to sit in the virtual garage, he’s employed as a technical director.

“But when he doesn’t travel he’s there. It’s just the opposite. We run two strategists, one per car. One of them doesn’t travel, he’s in the virtual garage. Now if they get rid of that we’ll have them travel. It costs you more.”

Szafnauer pointed out teams also generate income through their virtual garages.

“We have sponsorship for it. We’d lose that too. So then you’ve got to ask yourself if there is no cost benefit for getting rid of the virtual garage are they [Liberty] asking us to get rid of it because we compete with them on sponsorship?”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2018 F1 season