McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown has urged the FIA to act “quickly” and crack down on teams that break budget caps, saying budget overruns “equivalent to cheating”. Declared.
Last week, the FIA announced that Red Bull had exceeded last year’s budget cap and committed procedural breaches, and is now evaluating next steps. Aston Martin has also been found to have broken financial rules in breach of procedure.
Both Red Bull and Aston Martin can choose to agree with the FIA’s findings and proceed to a settlement known as an approved Breach Agreement (ABA), or challenge the matter through the Cost Cap Adjudication Board.
It’s not clear which route will be taken, but McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown has written to the FIA to let them know how important he thinks it is that the issue isn’t covered up.
“Budget overrun violations, and perhaps procedural violations, equate to cheating by offering significant advantages across technical, athletic and financial regulations.”
“The bottom line is that the teams that squandered have an unfair advantage both now and next year’s car development.”
Zak Brown wrote a private letter last week to FIA president Mohamed bin Sulayem and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.
However, the contents of the letter were revealed after Zak Brown also sent it to all CostCap compliant teams over the weekend. This includes Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine, Alfa his Romeo, Haas and Williams.
In the letter, Brown expressed confidence in the FIA’s crackdown on the cost cap process so far, but said how the governing body behaves now is very important. Zak Brown argued that there was no excuse for the team to overspend, especially since they were having a budget cap dress rehearsal in 2020.
“The FIA has run a very thorough, collaborative and open process and has even been given a year of dress rehearsals to give them ample opportunity to seek clarification when details are unclear. There is no longer any reason to say that I am surprised by any team.”
Brown also expressed his belief that there should be a sports penalty for violating the budget cap, not just a fine.
“We do not believe that financial penalties alone are appropriate penalties for budget overruns or serious procedural violations. As decided by the FIA, sporting penalties are clearly necessary in these cases. ” added Zak Brown.
“Budget overruns should be penalized by lowering team cost caps in the year following the ruling, and we propose penalties equal to budget overruns plus fines. A $2 million budget overrun in 2021 will result in a $4 million deduction in 2023 ($2 million offset budget overrun plus a $2 million fine).”
“For context, $2 million represents a 25-50% upgrade of the annual machine development budget, so it’s a very positive long-term benefit.”
“Additionally, we believe there should be a minor overspending sports penalty of reducing CFD and wind tunnel time by 20%. It should be enforced and will continue to benefit.”
“To avoid teams accumulating and profiting from the multiplier effect of several minor budget overruns, we propose that a second minor budget overrun automatically transitions a team to a major violation. do”
“Finally, given the financial situation involved, the 5% threshold for minor overbudget violations seems too dispersive. We suggest that a lower threshold of 2.5% is more appropriate.”
Zak Brown feels it is essential for the FIA to be transparent about how it handles the Red Bull case and the future of the cost cap depends on it.
“Now that we understand the spending landscape of the various teams, we must quickly communicate subsequent actions and penalties in order to maintain the integrity of F1 and the rules it abides by,” said Brown. is a comment.
“It is of utmost importance that the cost cap continues to be managed in a highly transparent manner, both regarding the details of the violation and the associated penalties.”
“After the first year of running and researching the scheme, it is also important to understand if there is a need for further clarification on specific issues or key learnings. must be shared by all teams, there is no room for loopholes.”
Zak Brown, a Sky F1 critic, said the cost cap was ‘brilliant’ and ‘underlying why, in my view, F1 is in a better place today than ever before’. He closed the letter by referring to Martin Brundle’s recent comments.
“I completely agree with Martin. In fact, the introduction of the cost cap is one of the main reasons we have attracted new shareholders and investors to F1 in recent years, and they are looking at it financially and We see it as a way to promote fair play in the sport.”
“It is therefore important that the cost cap rules are strictly enforced for the integrity and future of F1.”
Red Bull has claimed several times that it believes last year’s cost cap submission was under the limit of about $145 million.
After the FIA said Red Bull violated its financial rules, Red Bull said it would not change its position.
“We are surprised and disappointed by the FIA’s finding of ‘minor budget overruns against financial regulations’,” Red Bull said in a statement.
“Our 2021 application is below the cost cap and we believe the associated costs are below the 2021 cost cap, requiring careful consideration of the FIA’s findings.”
Category: F1 / mclaren / red bull / FIA