With every side having submitted their financial records for 2022 to the FIA on March 31, F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali has admitted that he’s “more than nervous” to release each team’s financial records, due to the controversy it caused last season.
Last season, of course, saw Red Bull slapped with a penalty by the FIA due to having breached the 2021 budget cap, something team principal Christian Horner warns “six teams” could have done in 2022.
Red Bull were fined $7 million and had their wind tunnel time reduced by 10-percent for 12 months, a sentence they have several months still to serve.
The biggest issue last season was that it took the FIA almost an entire year to publish each team’s financial records, something which meant the 2022 season had almost finished by the time it had been revealed who’d breached the cap.
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
Domenicali is hopeful that the financial records will be released earlier this season than they were last year, with the Italian believing that “everyone understands” how seriously it’ll be taken should a breach be discovered.
“I’m pretty sure that everyone understands now what the effect is if there is a breach and I totally agree that the focus on this will actually be very big,” Domenicali told Sky Sports.
“I think that is a point of attention mainly for the credibility and to check if everyone is respecting that rule, but [it] has to be done earlier than later.”
A potential issue for Domenicali is the belief amongst Red Bull that over half the grid have potentially breached last season’s cap; however, Horner assured last season that the Austrians weren’t one of the teams at risk.
“A danger for 2022 is that there could be six teams in breach of the cap,” Horner said towards the end of last season.
“Energy prices have been exponential, but thankfully we’ve been protected from that.
“But there is that chance that several teams, many of which have stated it during F1 commission meetings, will break the cap this year.”
READ: Ferrari boss insists Red Bull can’t ‘say they have everything under control’
Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko added that as it stands several teams look set to be facing a penalty when the records are released, with inflation having a huge impact on the entire paddock.
“I think the current status is that six teams are over it,” Marko said.
“Inflation is something that was not calculable to that extent, especially when it comes to energy costs.”