The risk the big F1 teams face with the updated cost cap

It would be understandable if fans were left bemused by the ongoing saga of team bosses arguing about a few million here and there.

After all, this sport is supposed to be about the battle between drivers on track, and between the clever people who design and run their cars. It was never meant to be a contest between accountants.

However, we mustn’t lose sight of the big picture. F1 is in a healthy situation at the moment in large part because there is a cost cap, and thus there is a lid on total spending that reins in the biggest players.

Had it not been introduced, more than one team could have been lost in the last couple of years. Instead, investors have been scrambling to become involved in the sport.

“The argument is that F1 is now too cheap,” says Alfa Romeo’s Fred Vasseur. “For me, this one is completely wrong, because I think F1 is in a good shape because we have the cost cap.

“If you kill the cost cap, I’m not sure that we stay in a good shape. F1 was always up and down. Okay we are going up, but at one stage we will have another phase.

“At the end of the day, I think as F1 we were quite close to the deep shit two or three years ago. We were really on the edge to lose three teams.”

It thus has to be accepted that F1’s financial regulations now carry as much weight as their sporting and technical equivalents, and that breaking them has to result in some form of punishment.

The big difference is the time lag. Assuming that nothing untoward happens on track or in parc ferme, then the results of the Abu Dhabi GP, and hence the 2022 world championship, should be definitive on the evening of November 20 – at least in terms of sporting and technical matters.

However, the final financial numbers for this season will only be crunched well into 2023. In theory, a breach could result in a retrospective punishment that impacts this year’s world championship, and possibly triggers a messy legal fight if the team concerned does not accept the judgement.

There’s one precedent in F1 history in terms of a significant post-season change to the season’s outcome.

Following his infamous clash with Jacques Villeneuve at the 1997 European GP at Jerez, Michael Schumacher lost his second place in the world championship, a punishment that meant a lot less than if he’d lost the actual title.

However, a late change of winner is not…