How can F1 break the deadlock over competing cost cap desires?

The matter has polarised the teams, with Alpine and Alfa Romeo the most vocal in attempting to ensure that there is no change to the headline 2022 figure of $140m, plus an extra $1.2m for the 22nd race. Meanwhile Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are leading the push for an increase, and their pleas have been getting increasingly frantic as the clock continues to tick and they see where their costs are heading as global inflation kicks in.

All teams agreed to a reduction from $175m to the current level at the height of the global COVID lockdown in 2020, at a time when it wasn’t clear what kind of season we would eventually have, and thus how much income would be coming in. Just a couple of years later, we have a full schedule, huge crowds are back at the venues and sponsors are queuing up to come in. Teams are arguably in a healthier state than ever before.

Against that background, it’s perhaps not surprising that the big players are frustrated that they can’t direct more of their substantial funding into making their cars go faster while balancing out those rising costs. Red Bull boss Christian Horner suggested in Barcelona that several teams would have to miss four races in order to stay under the cap, although in Monaco he clarified that he was just trying to give us some perspective on how much teams are currently expecting to bust the cap by.

There is clearly some logic to the argument for an allowance for inflation. But how it significant should be, how it should be applied and what kind of precedent it would set in terms of further rises in future years are all questions that remain unresolved.

The bigger picture is the principle of the cap. It shouldn’t be forgotten that several teams and their owners committed to a long-term future in grand prix racing on the basis that spending would be reined in, and it would no longer be a bottomless pit of investment. Instead, F1 would be about efficient spending and making effective use of your resources,…