F1 wants to end budget cap row by Canada

(GMM) Formula 1 wants to end a raging argument about the budget cap by this month’s Canadian GP.

On the one hand, big teams like Mercedes and Red Bull are pushing for an emergency increase to the $140m per-team cap, to stave off raging global inflation.

Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto has even admitted that $175 million would be a good new limit.

“We would have no problem with that,” he said.

In the other corner are the smaller teams, represented by figures like Alfa Romeo’s Frederic Vasseur who argues: “My budget is the budget that I have, which is $10 million below the limit.

“If there is now inflation, I can’t say ‘I want more’. I can only spend the money I have.”

Ironically, however, it is Williams who have actually breached the budget cap rules, as it emerges the back-of-the-grid team failed to meet a reporting deadline to the FIA last year.

As a result, the team must pay a $25,000 fine.

However, Red Bull’s Christian Horner says the leniency of fines like that for minor breaches could actually be used for sporting reasons by the big teams.

That is because all teams are given a 5 percent margin, within which the relatively small financial penalties might actually justify a deliberate breach.

“If one overshoots by 4.9 percent and another by only 4.7 percent, that can be the difference between an upgrade that decides the world championship,” said Horner.

“Is that what we want?”