Two Formula 1 teams are believed to have exceeded the sport’s budget cap in the first year it was introduced, according to reports in German and Italian media.
Red Bull, who took Max Verstappen to the world championship last year, is one of the teams which may have overspent, according to reports in La Gazzetta dello Sport and Auto Motor und Sport.
F1 introduced its budget cap last season. Teams were required to keep their spending below $145 million, excluding some items such as the salaries of its drivers and top management.
Any team which exceeded the spending limit stood to gain an advantage over its rivals as the additional funds could allow them to employ more staff, conduct more testing or produce more parts.
Red Bull were involved in a year-long fight with Mercedes for the championship. Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton arrived at the final race tied on points. While Verstappen narrowly won the drivers’ title, Mercedes took the constructors’ trophy for the eighth year running.
Despite Red Bull’s development push, which secured the first championship for one of its drivers since 2013, the team began the new season in strong shape. Its new RB18 has proved the car to beat since its early reliability problems were cured. Verstappen can win the drivers’ championship in Singapore this weekend, and Red Bull are unlikely to be overhauled in the constructors’ standings.
The development poses the first significant test of F1’s budget cap rules. A wide range of penalties are available to the FIA if any team is found to have exceeded the spending limits. These include fines and further restrictions on spending in future seasons.
The available penalties also include points deductions for the season in question, for both the team and driver. Verstappen beat Hamilton to the title by just eight points last year, but a retroactive change to the championship outcome nine months after the season ended would be an enormously controversial and unpopular move.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Last year’s championship was already overshadowed by the mishandling of the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by the FIA’s F1 race director Michael Masi. He lost his job after the sport’s governing body admitted he made an “error” in arranging a final lap restart having only allowed a portion of the lapped cars to regain the lead lap, instead of all of them as the rules required.
Teams were required to supply details of their 2021 spending by the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…