It’s been rumoured that three teams are believed to have breached the 2022 budget cap, with the Italian edition of Motorsport.com understanding that the FIA will deliver last season’s certificates of compliance at the end of this month.
The FIA have checked all the financial documents significantly quicker than they did last year, where it was only discovered towards the end of the season that Red Bull had breached the 2021 cap.
If the rumours are correct, three teams are set to face punishment soon, something which will put a dark cloud over the championship and the guilty parties.
After breaching the 2021 cap, Red Bull were fined $7 million and slapped with a 10-percent reduction of their allotted wind tunnel time for 12 months, something which has impacted the development of the RB19.
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Whether the guilty teams receive a similar punishment to Red Bull or not largely depends on the size of their breach, with the Austrians having gone over the cap by around £1.8 million.
F1 CEO and president Stefano Domenicali would like to see any side to have breached the cap receive a “sporting” penalty rather than a financial one, something the Italian has asked the governing body for “very clearly”.
“I would like the penalty to be sporting in case of infringement, it is something we asked for very clearly,” Domenicali told Autosport.
“There are three regulations to be respected: sporting, technical and financial. Any infractions must be punished with sporting measures. You can’t go in other directions.”
The rumours will likely be discussed this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix, which marks the 11th round of the 2023 season, due to the cancellation of Emilia Romagna.
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Domenicali will presumably be hoping that the 2022 budget cap doesn’t get in the way of the racing, especially as the sport has no “control” over the investigations.
“Control is in the hands of the FIA,” he said. “Personally what I have asked is to anticipate as soon as possible the publication of the investigations made by the staff of the FIA.
“But I say this only because, in this way, it does not give rise to speculation and comments that are not good for anyone.”