Cost-cap breach is cheating, says Mclaren boss in letter
Mclaren chief Zak Brown has urged the FIA to act “at pace” and come down hard on Formula 1’s cost-cap rule breakers, declaring that overspending “constitutes cheating”.
While the FIA considers its next steps after finding that Red Bull had committed a minor overspend through the 2021 season, Brown wrote to F1’s governing body to call for strict action.
In a letter – a copy of which has been seen by Autosport – that was sent to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, Brown (below) wrote: “The overspend breach, and possibly the procedural breaches, constitute cheating by offering a significant advantage across technical, sporting, and financial regulations.”
He added: “The bottom line is any team who has overspent has gained an unfair advantage both in the current and following year’s car development.”
Although the letter was sent privately, its contents have emerged after Brown also sent it to six other cost-capcompliant teams over the weekend: Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams.
Red Bull has strongly denied that it breached the $145million cost cap in 2021, saying it was surprised and disappointed by the FIA’S findings. Aston Martin was ruled to have committed a procedural breach by the FIA, but did not overspend.
In the letter, Brown expressed his faith in the FIA’S policing of the cost-cap process so far but said that how the governing body acted now was hugely important. He argued that there was no excuse for any team to have overspent, especially as everyone had been through a dress rehearsal of spending limits in 2020.
Brown also expressed his belief that any breach of the spending limit should result in a sporting penalty rather than just a fine. He suggested it “should be penalised by way of a reduction to the team’s cost cap in the year following the ruling and the penalty should be equal to the overspend plus a further fine”.
He used an example of a $2m overspend resulting in a $4m budget deduction for the next year, which would deny any offending teams “a significant positive and long-lasting benefit” by eating into most of their yearly development budget.
Brown added that it was “paramount” that the FIA was transparent in its handling of the case, saying: “Any insights or learnings should be shared across ALL teams – there can be no room for loopholes.”