Not compromising on the budget cap now risks a debate over its “value” to Formula 1, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto claims.
This year, up to seven teams are reportedly set the exceed $140m limit due to rising costs for transportation, utilities and more as a result of ballooning inflation and other reasons.
This has led to a fierce argument between the top teams and the smaller outfits, who will not reach the budget cap limit and argue the bigger teams should simply stop making upgrades in order to comply.
Without any adjustments, however, there is a possibility that some teams could miss races and even the championship itself could end up being decided by some kind of penalty.
“I think there will simply be no way for us to stay below. At some stage, we will go over,” Ferrari chief Binotto conceded.
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“In the regulations, there is a threshold which is five per cent. If you do not exceed the five per cent on top of the budget cap threshold, it will be considered a minor breach.
“What is a minor breach in case of force majeure? The stewards and the FIA will decide on that but in terms of penalties, no idea.
“But I think it will be really a shame that a sport like F1 will be dictated by the budget cap at the end. It has to remain a sporting and technical challenge.”
It isn’t just the possible ramifications for this year either that Binotto is concerned about, as he thinks a failure to act could trigger a larger debate.
“What will be the implications? For me, the most important is many teams will breach it and that will simply be bad for the financial regulations because if we come to the point where we are breaching them, then we are debating its value,” he said.
“We will start to debate if the financial regulation is worthwhile, is it working and putting everything back into a discussion.
“We need to avoid that because it is important to have a cap somehow. The only way is to give some more [room to breathe], take some more time and try to do a better and proper job for next year.”
Given the concept of a budget cap is still new in F1, the Ferrari chief thinks that offers even more scope to adapt to the current global situation.
“The budget cap, or the financial regulation, is certainly a very green regulation. It’s only the second year and it will take many years to fine-tune it,” Binotto added.
“I think the only thing we can do, as F1, with a sense of responsibility is to give a bit of breath, increase the budget cap for inflation, which is something, as I said, which we never foresaw.
“I think that will be the right thing to avoid even maybe discussions at the end of the year and the championship, or maybe the team winning the championship was simply the one spending the most. And that would be wrong.”