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McLaren boss Zak Brown has called for tougher penalties and tighter spending limits to protect the integrity of Formula 1’s new cost cap, arguing any proven overspend “constitutes cheating”.
As first reported by the BBC, Brown sent a letter to the FIA, F1 management and fellow 2021 cost cap compliant teams Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine, Alfa Romeo and Haas. Brown says any team that’s overspent gains an “unfair advantage both in the current and following year’s car development”.
“The overspend breach, and possibly the procedural breaches, constitute cheating by offering a significant advantage across technical, sporting and financial regulations,” Brown says.
“The FIA has run an extremely thorough, collaborative and open process. We have even been given a one-year dress rehearsal [in 2020], with ample opportunity to seek any clarification if details were unclear. So, there is no reason for any team to now say they are surprised.”
The letter is dated October 12 – two days after the FIA confirmed in a brief statement that only seven of F1’s 10 teams were certified as compliant with F1’s inaugural $145million budget cap in 2021.
Aston Martin and Williams were both found guilty of procedural transgressions, while Red Bull was confirmed as the only F1 team the FIA believes overspent in 2021.
Red Bull immediately released a statement re-iterating its belief it complied with the 2021 cost cap, expressing surprise and disappointment at the FIA’s findings.
The scale of Red Bull’s alleged transgression, and the precise penalty the FIA intends to apply, have yet to be made public. In his letter, Brown makes clear a fine alone would be insufficient and that a tough sporting penalty needs to apply to any overspend.
He thinks guilty teams should face a “20% reduction in CFD and wind tunnel time” for the sort of ‘minor’ overspend (<5%) Red Bull is accused of.
Brown also argues for a further reduction in a guilty team’s individual cost cap for the following season, which should be “equal to the overspend plus a further fine – ie an overspend of $2m in 2021, which is identified in 2022, would result in a $4m deduction in 2023 ($2m to offset the overspend plus $2m fine)”.
Brown says $2million is worth 25-50% of a team’s annual development budget so “would have a significant positive and long-lasting benefit”.
He also argues for any repeat offences automatically upgrading a team from a ‘minor overspend breach’ to a ‘major breach’, as currently defined in the regulations – and argues the current 5% threshold for minor breaches is too generous and should be halved to 2.5%.
“It is paramount that the cost cap continues to be governed in a highly transparent manner, both in terms of the details of any violations and related penalties,” Brown adds.
“It will also be important to understand if, after the first full year of running and investigating the scheme, there needs to be further clarity on certain matters or any key learnings. Again, any insights or learnings should be shared across all teams – there can be no room for loopholes.
“The-cost cap introduction has been one of the main reasons we have attracted new shareholders and investors to F1 in recent years, as they see it as a way to drive financial and sporting fair play.
“It is therefore critical that we be very firm on implementing the rules of the cost cap for the integrity and the future of F1.”
The Race has contacted McLaren for a comment.
