Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto expressed his concern regarding the fact that the FIA could not be aware of the great difficulty of the task it faces in policing the budget cap and making sure that all teams respeect the imposed limitations.
Even before the budget cap idea was introduced, several team bosses pointed out that some could attempt to work around the limitations, questioning just how prepared the FIA’s accountants would be compared to the large staff of experts that teams such as Mercedes can rely on when it comes to legal issues.
2022 represents the second season in which the budget cap is used and teams are questioning how this is implemented, while also making various attempts to have it raised. This was also one of the key issues which led to the number of Sprint races not being increased for the 2022 Formula 1 season. As Ferrari and Red Bull seem to very close in terms of performance and will most likely fight for the F1 world titles until the very end of the year, the upgrades for the championship battle become even more important and not to mention the porpoising problem that is leaving teams facing a difficult time in terms of just how the available resources should be spent, as is the current weight problem for the cars.
While pointing out that Ferrari trusts the procedures set in place by the FIA, team principal Mattia Binotto remains concerned that the governing body may not realize the enormity of the task it faces in policing the cap.
“I fully trust the FIA” – the Ferrari boss explained, according to pitpass.com – “but no doubt that it’s a brand new regulation and as all the regulations, there is always a competitive advantage if you can try to read them in the proper ways. It doesn’t mean that there are grey areas, but it’s the way that teams may understand or read or interpret the regulations themselves. So I think there is the need of a big effort from FIA to try to police. I think that in order in order to do that they need to reinforce the internal staff and the number of people that somehow are auditing and policing, because it’s a key element. I think it is as important as the technical and as the sporting regulations because as a matter of fact it is a proper regulation, or maybe today the CFOs are as important as technical directors. At the end, it’s important that FIA put really the maximum effort into trying to understand the different assets of the different companies and teams, how they spend the money, how they justify the way they’re spending it. And I think in that respect, it’s a huge and difficult task.” – the Ferrari boss added.
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“But we are trusting them,” he insists. “I’m pretty sure that they will organise themselves to do it. But I think that further effort is required.” – Mattia Binotto explained.
“There is always grey areas,” Haas boss Guenther Steiner added, weighing in on the topic – “but I think the FIA is putting a lot of effort and good work into it to be on top as much as possible. There’s always grey areas but normally the grey areas they have discussed between the financial people. Nobody’s trying to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes. You know, it’s like one of those things; if you find grey area to exploit it, but I think there are not a lot of loopholes to do anything which wouldn’t end up in being big penalties.” – the Haas boss concluded.
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