A cost cap was introduced into Formula 1 in 2021, limiting teams to spending a maximum of $145m over the course of the season.
This cap was introduced to bring the grid a lot closer together and prevent the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull from blowing the rest of the competition out of the water financially.
The F1 world was rocked last season when around the time of the Singapore Grand Prix, rumours began to emerge that Red Bull had breached the 2021 cost cap, the season where Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to the championship in Abu Dhabi.
It was eventually confirmed by the FIA that Red Bull had in fact made a ‘minor breach’ of the cap and while many wanted the team to be stripped of their 2021 drivers’ championship, Red Bull were slapped with a $7m fine and had their wind tunnel testing time for 2023 cut by ten percent.
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F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali stressed that an appropriate punishment was needed to maintain the integrity of the sport.
The Italian has also said that while the cost cap is mainly an issue for the FIA to deal will, he does expect it to receive a lot of attention this year.
“The debate is really relevant for the Federation to tackle that, because I want to respect the role that we have,” he told Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle.
“We are the commercial rights holder, they are the regulator. We’re talking about penalties that, by the way, were discussed within the teams when the financial regulations were being done, have been always a debate.
“The step change of financial regulation for one has been a step change in the governance of the sport. It’s a financial penalty with regard to a sporting penalty more than one or the other.
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“I think that is a point which I see there will be a lot of attention this year. We could have even more problems to manage because the dimension of the complexity, it is really huge.”
Many team principals have admitted that the regulations surrounding the cost cap are very complex, making it difficult to correctly file all of the reports.
Aston Martin were found guilty of a procedural breach after misunderstanding the rules, by the team were only hit with a small fine rather than any sporting penalties.