Formula 1’s controversial budget cap regulation for the 2022 championship was set at $140m, which means $1.2m were added for the fact that there are more than 21 events this year and there given the three sprint race weekends, which leads to higher costs for the teams as compared to a normal race weekend.
However, due to the increasing worldwide inflation, there have been a lot of talks during the first part of the campaign regarding the possibility of exceptionally increased by 3.1% the budget cap limit in order to allow teams to stay within the regulation. The proposal was eventually accepted and the allowance remains subject to a planned 3% indexation next season.
Despite the fact that many believe the budget cap rules are one of the main factors that have led to performance gaps between Formula 1 teams being gradually reduced – and it is indeed clear that Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are not able to introduce many updates due to the budget cap limit, Scuderia Ferrari point out that questions still remain on how the FIA plans to monitor the situation and police the teams’ spending.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed that he trusts the FIA is able to closely keep an eye on how much each side spends for development updates, but feels that financial policing remains uncharted territory in the sport:
“It needs to be policed and monitored. I fully trust the FIA, but the financial regulations are completely new regulations. And if you look at the technical or sporting [regulations], it’s many years it’s in place. Yes, you are retuning, changing a bit the chassis, but still [the budget cap] an unknown field, both from the FIA and the teams. We know exactly where things can be done, where it needs to be policed. That is why the financial regulations are completely new regulations for both the teams and the FIA. And it will take the time for the FIA, for the teams, to know it, to interpret it and clarify it, police it and monitor it.” – Mattia Binotto explained.
As a result, the Ferrari team principal believes it will be very important for the FIA to bring more people in and thus expand its small task force which currently has the task of evaluating and monitoring the budget cap spending for each Formula 1 team. Until this will happen, the Ferrari boss is worried that rivals may be able to elude the restrictions, especially given the numerous updates introduced by Red Bull in the first half of the season, as the Austrian team now plans to introduce a completely new chassis, which in theory should be worth a few million euros:
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“If I look at how big is the team on the FIA, the financial monitors of the situation… three, four, five people, compared to the tens they have on the technical [side], I’m expecting that maybe in a few years’ time it could be tens of people financially monitoring what’s going on with the budget,” he argued. So, it’s a matter of time. But in the meantime, there is a big question mark, so we know we need to go through it. I think it’s part of the FIA’s task and teams’ duty to try to speed up as much as we can for the right monitoring but we should be all aware that right now, how is it? A big question mark.” – Mattia Binotto concluded.
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