The FIA is reportedly investigating “potential breaches by more than one team” of the Formula 1 cost cap. The governing body has yet to announce an outcome from the submissions made by the 10 teams earlier this year regarding their compliance with budget rules during the 2024 season.
Since 2021, teams have had to comply with a budget limit restricting most areas of their operations in terms of spending. For the 2024 season, the cap ended up being set at around £124million. That does not include some key areas of expenditure, such as driver salaries and marketing spend.
Every team on the grid was found to be compliant across the 2022 and 2023 campaigns. The FIA confirmed that in early-to-mid September in the year after each season had finished, but as we approach late October there has been no such announcement from the governing body yet regarding the teams’ 2024 results.
Teams submitted their own reviews of their cost cap spending by the March 31 deadline, since when FIA analysts have been poring over the details to make sure they are happy with the compliance of each team. The delay in announcing the results has raised eyebrows – and suspicions of a possible breach.
Indeed, The Race reports sources suggesting “potential breaches by more than one team are being probed”. None of the teams potentially under investigation have been named. And there currently no concrete evidence that any of the 10 teams failed to comply with cost cap rules in the 2024 season.
An FIA spokesperson said the governing body was “finalising the review of the 2024 submissions” and suggested the final outcome will be “communicated shortly”. They added: “The results of the review will be made public once assessment of all submissions are completed and finalised.”
The only cost cap breaches since the rules came into force were all from that 2021 season in which they were first enforced. Williams self-reported a procedural breach and were given a relatively nominal fine. Aston Martin had to pay a more significant fee after they too were found to have committed a procedural breach, forking out around £335,000.
Red Bull were the only team found to have spent too much. They were given a £6million fine and a sporting penalty which saw them docked 10 percent of their allotted wind tunnel time over a 12-month period, having eventually accepted that they had committed a “minor” overspend of less than five percent of the cap.
Those are the precedents that the FIA are sure to consider if, indeed, it emerges that one or more teams committed a breach of the cost cap rules in the 2024 season.