New Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has urged the FIA to announce budget cap breaches quicker than they did when revealing Red Bull’s 2021 breach to the world, whilst the Frenchman has also called for the governing body to “forget about minor and major” breaches.
2022 was a busy year for the FIA, as they spent the vast majority of the season checking the teams financial accounts for 2021, to determine if they’d spent within the $145 million budget.
As well known, Red Bull failed to keep within the budget and exceeded the 2021 cap by $2.2 million, something which was labelled by the governing body as a ‘minor’ breach.
For breaching the allotted budget, the 2022 Constructors’ Champions were fined $7 million by the FIA, whilst they also received a 10-percent reduction in permitted aerodynamic research for 12 months.
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The latter means the Austrians will receive 10-percent less time in the wind tunnel than they would’ve been allocated, something which could hurt their mid-season developments.
The paddock offered a varied response to Red Bull’s punishment, with Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies having believed that it wasn’t harsh enough, whereas Red Bull boss Christian Horner labelled the penalty as “draconian”.
According to Red Bull, the amount they overspent by wasn’t put into car development, with catering having been predominantly blamed for their ‘minor’ breach.
Teams have become concerned, though, that even a small breach could result in a massive on-track advantage, with Vasseur wanting the FIA to scrap the ‘minor’ and ‘major’ concept.
Despite this, the former Alfa Romeo boss believes that the budget cap is “by far the best regulation that we introduced in F1”, but that it does need tweaking.
“Where we have to work today, firstly, it was far too long,” Vasseur told Motorsport.com, before his Ferrari move was announced.
“We need to find a way to have a red light before, or to be able to take action much earlier.
“And we have to probably be a bit more strict on the decision. OK, perhaps this was the first one, but from now we have to forget about minor and major. Because for me, two or three million, it’s not minor, it’s mega, for development.
“I think we have to be much more strict and much more quick on the action.”
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The new Ferrari boss also heaped praise on the governing body’s head of financial regulations, Federico Lodi, who has done a “mega job”.
“I would say the cost cap administration and Federico Lodi did a mega job,” said Vasseur.
“We don’t have to forget it.”