The Formula 1 teams are preparing for the FIA announcement, scheduled for Wednesday, that will reveal which teams stayed under the spending limit last year and which ones exceeded it.
Over the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, speculation spread that one team had narrowly breached the budget cap, while another was well over the limit. Aston Martin and Red Bull are accused of being the teams that have violated the rules, but both teams have quickly denied these rumors by insisting that the FIA had not informed them of any problems.
The rival teams are very interested in the outcome of the FIA checks and above all how the governing body will take into consideration a penalty for the teams that have exceeded the limit.
Although a 5% breach of the $ 145 million limit is officially classified as a “minor” violation, Scuderia Ferrari is aware that the benefits of spending a few million more are enormous. The Italian side’s Team principal Mattia Binotto admitted it is not ideal that the battle for the 2021 championship is still on the agenda, but reiterated the argument relating to excess spending should not be hidden under the carpet.
“It is certainly a shame that we talk about it in October of the following season, because at this point, in addition to the implications for last year’s championship, there are also those on the current championship,” he said, in a recent interview for Sky Italia – “We wait for Wednesday before giving a judgment but, regardless the figures, it is important to point out that even if we are talking about four million, which fall into the category of what are considered minor infringements, this figure cannot in fact be considered a minor infringement”. – the Ferrari boss pointed out.
“For us, four million represent the development parts of an entire season. Four million means 70 people in a technical department who can design and produce solutions that can be worth up to half a second per lap. So even if it’s a minor violation, it’s not peanuts.” – he continued.
Mattia Binotto then added: “We are talking about half a second and this advantage is reflected in the following seasons because, although it started in 2021, it still gives a competitive advantage in 2022 and 2023, so this is clearly an important issue”. It questions credibility in general. I hope everyone has approached this matter correctly, because otherwise it will be a very big problem to deal with.” – the Ferrari boss warned.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff echoed Mattia Binotto‘s comments on the importance of upgrades, believing that any extra spending has a direct impact on enabling teams to deliver much better performance.
“This is a so-called minor violation, but I don’t think the term is incorrect. If you spend five million more and you are still in a minor violation, this figure still has a big impact on the league. Obviously we closely monitor which parts are brought to the track by the top teams in each single race, both for the 2021 season and for the 2022 season and we can see that there are two top teams that are the same and another that spends more. We know exactly how much we spend: three and a half million a year on parts that we bring for the car. So you can understand what a difference it makes to spend another 500,000 dollars.” – the Mercedes boss explained.
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“We didn’t produce lightweight components to reduce the car’s overweight because we simply don’t have the money. We have to spend it on next year’s car. We cannot homologate a lightweight chassis and take it to the race, because with two million more we would exceed the limit. So, as you can see, every extra expense has a performance advantage.” – Toto Wolff pointed out.
The FIA will issue compliance certificates to teams that were under the 2021 limit on Wednesday to confirm they were in line with regulations, while all teams deemed to be over the limit are likely to face a separate hearing to decide on possible penalties.
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