Williams F1 team fined for ‘procedural breach’ of cost cap rules

Williams have been fined $25,000 for breaching Formula One’s cost cap regulations by missing a deadline to file the team’s 2021 accounts, the governing FIA said on Tuesday.

It said an ‘accepted breach agreement’ dated May 19, 2022 was entered into by the FIA and Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited.

Williams were notified on April 12 that they had committed a procedural breach after the team voluntarily disclosed the problem ahead of the March 31 full year reporting deadline.

The matter has since been resolved and Williams have paid the penalty.

The former champions are the first to be punished for a breach of the cost cap regulations which limit Formula One teams to spending of $140 million this year.

Privately-owned Williams, once dominant but without a title since 1997 and now fighting among the back-markers, have one of the smaller budgets in the sport.

The biggest and wealthiest teams have warned that keeping within the limits will be impossible due to inflation and spiralling costs, and want the FIA to stretch the cap.

Mercedes F1 boss and co-owner Toto Wolff told reporters at last month’s Monaco Grand Prix that his team’s energy bill at the Brackley factory had gone up from £2.5 million ($3.15 million) to £6.5m and freight costs in a similar way.