Two Formula 1 teams are believed to have gone over budget in the sport’s first year, according to media reports in Germany and Italy.
Red Bull, which took Max Verstappen to the world championship last year, is one of the top-spending teams, according to reports in La Gazzetta dello Sport and Auto Motor & Sport.
F1 introduced the budget cap last season. Teams are required to keep their costs under $145 million, which does not include the salaries of drivers and senior management.
Any team that exceeds the spending limit stands to gain an advantage over its rivals because the extra funds allow them to hire more staff, run more tests or produce more parts.
Red Bull has been locked in a year-long battle with Mercedes for the championship. Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton went into the final race tied on points. Verstappen narrowly won the drivers’ honours, while Mercedes took the constructors’ title for the eighth year running.
Despite Red Bull’s development push, which secured the first championship for one of its drivers since 2013, the team started the new season strongly. The new RB18 proved to be a hit after early reliability issues were cured. Verstappen could win the drivers’ championship in Singapore this weekend, and Red Bull is unlikely to be renewed in the build-up stages.
The development poses the first major challenge to F1’s budget cap rules. Wider penalties are available to the FIA if any team is found to have exceeded the spending limit. These include fines and additional restrictions on future expenses.
The available penalties include a points deduction for the season in question, for both the team and the driver. Verstappen beat Hamilton by just eight points last year, but a reshuffle of the championship standings nine months after the end of the season is a highly controversial and unpopular move.
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Last year’s championship was overshadowed by FIA F1 race director Michael Massi’s mishandling of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix title. He lost his job after admitting that the sport’s governing body had made a “mistake” in arranging a final lap restart, allowing only a fraction of the stolen cars to be returned, contrary to the rules.
Teams were required to submit their 2021 expenditure details by the end of March this year. Williams became the first team to fall foul of F1’s financial rules in June, when it was fined for late submission of paperwork.
An FIA spokesperson told RaceFans: “The FIA is currently completing a review of the 2021 financial information submitted by all Formula 1 teams. The cases of alleged violation of the financial regulations will be dealt with according to the formal procedure described in the regulation.
Possible penalties for exceeding the budget ceiling
If a team spends over the five percent cap, the Spending Adjudication Panel has the ability to apply various penalties to offending teams. These include:
Penalties (to be determined on a case-by-case basis) Deduction of points from the Constructors’ Championship for the season in which the infringement occurred Deduction of points from the Drivers’ Championship for the season in which the infringement occurred Suspension from sessions during the competition. Weekends such as practice, qualifying or races, but the Grandfathers do not charge their own costs Climate Test Grants Restrictions Reduction of the spending limit after the year in which the penalty is applied (violations for 2021 will result in reduction of captaincy for 2023)
For teams spending more than 5%, the Price Cap Arbitration Panel may apply penalties as above but with the additional option of excluding teams from the Championship.
All these penalties can be suspended, which means that they will not be applied directly, but if a team commits the same violation for the second time. The panel may also provide greater monitoring and surveillance of vandalism groups in the future.
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