On Friday 8 July, while the teams and drivers were about to start their weekend preparations at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, the F1 Commission meeting was held, which in addition to exposing the next steps regarding the 2026 power unit regulation and talking about the measures needed relating to limit porpoising, it also passed an important directive on the budget cap.
The decision
The spending cap (initially set at $ 140 million) has been raised by 3.1% to take into account the inflation on transport costs that the teams will have to bear between now and the end of the 2022 Formula One season. A decision that was not easy to make, but which will allow the financial regulation to withstand the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
But how did the big teams judge the decision?
“The news was welcomed by us,” said Scuderia Ferrari Mattia Binotto when asked about the small increase in the budget cap – “There was a lot of discussion in the last few meetings without reaching a conclusion, even in terms of timings we were really at the limit. Some teams had already predicted that they would go beyond the threshold, so it was important to find a solution” – Mattia Binotto explained.
“I want to thank the smaller teams, because they have always been very constructive,” added the Ferrari team principal. “Obviously, as far as we are concerned, we would like to have more and more, but this is enough to give us some room.”
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Decent result despite a general dissatisfaction
On the other hand, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has a completely different opinion on this matter. The Mercedes boss speaks of a rather dissatisfied paddock, and perhaps this means that the right direction has been taken: “The solution does not seem enough in the eyes of the big teams and exaggerated for the smaller teams. The prices of energy and inflation are skyrocketing … Nobody is happy, but that’s why we can perhaps define it as a good result” – Toto Wolff concluded.
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