How F1 budget cap is reining in one-off developments

That was evident at Monaco, where apart from some brake duct modifications, teams hadn’t added any extra aero items.

Most only brought revised the steering geometry that is traditionally required to help cars get round the hairpin.

While the lack of aero tweaks was also related to this year’s more restrictive bodywork regulations, it was also a function of the budget cap, with teams preferring to spend their limited funds on developments that are beneficial on a wider range of circuits.

“I may not be thanked by the governing body, but it’s very much regulation,” said Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan. “We are quite restricted on what we can do.

“And the absence of modularity makes it very expensive to do the little things we used to do with all winglets, gurneys on the front wing, this type of thing. It’s not practical, it’s not rewarding. And because of the regulations tying us down on the precise geometries, it’s very expensive.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to play down the extra steering lock, it is a far from a trivial undertaking. We have to put the wishbone pickups inside the wheel by regulation, so you can’t just do a longer steering arm, you can’t do this type of thing to try and get the lock.

“We have to seal the holes around the wishbones where they enter the wheel, not play around where we are not supposed to, apparently. So it’s a fairly big undertaking to realise the lock that was always designed in.”

Regarding Red Bull and others bringing revised brake ducts to Monaco, Monaghan conceded that they could also be useful elsewhere later in the season.

“Again, it’s quite a big and expensive undertaking,” he said. “I suppose if you look towards Hungary, look towards Singapore, that’s knowledge and possibly parts that we will take forward to those particular events.

“Where else we might need the high brake cooling? We would probably cope with Spielberg, Baku…