F1: Brown calls for relaxed Cost Cap rules needed to go green

As part of the new 2026 Concorde Agreement, McLaren’s Zak Brown has urged Formula 1 to change the cost cap rules to help teams promote sustainability without compromising performance.

Brown said on Thursday that teams should not have to choose between spending on car performance and sustainability initiatives that were currently included in the cost cap.

“We strongly believe in the cost cap and wouldn’t want to see anything that undermines its integrity,” said the American in a statement as the team published their annual sustainability report.

“But current regulations have created some unintended barriers when it comes to investing in sustainability.

“To unlock our sport’s potential to drive the development of more sustainable technologies that can spark positive changes on a global scale, we need a genuine step change,” he added.

“What we’d like to see is some adaptation of the financial regulations that allow you to clearly invest in sustainability,” Brown told reporters.

McLaren sustainability director Kim Wilson said new regulations for 2026 offered a big opportunity. That could be requiring a proportion of the car to be made from sustainable materials and how events are organized.

“Although they say 2026 we’ve got quite a small window to be able to come together collaboratively to find these pathways to building sustainability into the regulations,” said Wilson. “So we’ve really only effectively got until next summer I think. That’s why it’s urgent we need to act now.”