Changes to Formula 1’s cost cap are expected to be discussed at the sport’s Commission meeting on Monday, regarding the proposal for a new ‘ADUO for teams’ plan.
As first reported by The Race, Williams Team Principal James Vowles is pushing for a catch-up mechanism that will help close the gap between the top four teams and the rest of the grid in what he thinks has become a “cost cap trap”.
Vowles previously described the current situation in F1 as a “two-tier championship” at the Team Principal press conference at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia earlier this year.
While he praised the introduction of the cost cap for ensuring “long-term financial sustainability” for the teams, he argued that it has also made it difficult for smaller teams to catch up with the top outfits who spent heavily before the cap came in.
Should this become bedded into the sport, there is the risk the gap between teams will never close, and backmarkers will become less attractive for sponsors, leading to halted progress.
The Williams boss is pushing for a sliding scale system for teams outside of the top four that allows them to spend more within the cost cap. Under this system, teams that finish at the bottom of the constructors’ standings receive greater financial freedom to help them get closer to the front of the grid.
The proposal for this system – dubbed ‘ADUO for teams’ – has been added to the agenda for next week’s F1 Commission meeting.
‘ADUO for teams’ could give F1 backmarkers more financial freedom
The name references the ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) process that allows engine manufacturers additional spending allowances and technical upgrades if their power unit falls behind the benchmark.
For the proposal to be passed through the F1 Commission and implemented next year as Vowles had hoped, it would require support from the FIA, FOM and six of the current teams on the grid for a ‘supermajority’.
However, only four teams have expressed support so far: Alpine, Aston Martin, Audi and Cadillac. Haas is currently well short of the cost cap limit so is not worried about spending, while Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane has said he is against the proposed system.
Despite this, support from four teams does mean the ‘ADUO for teams’ system could be implemented in 2028, and be instrumental in shaping the new rules due to be introduced in 2030 or 2031.
Vowles recently admitted that, while there is support from the FIA and F1, there isn’t a clear enough path for the implementation to take, which means it could take some time.
“I don’t think we have an accurate enough direction that we need to take it in, that is right for the sport, which is still being discussed behind the scenes,” he said. “What I can say is the support is there.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight. As I previously mentioned, what I want to make sure is that we get it right by the next regulation change, which is a little way off, so we have some time.
“But my suspicion on it is you’ll see more and more being discussed over the next few months in that regard.”
F1 teams unhappy with cost cap salary regulations
While F1’s top teams won’t necessarily benefit as much from the ‘ADUO for teams’ system, reports suggest they are also dissatisfied with the current cost cap regulations and could push for change.
The cost cap introduces restrictions on how much teams can pay their employees, which has caused them difficulties in retaining talent who have been offered better money elsewhere, such as in other motorsport series or outside industries. Since the financial rules are tightly linked to inflation, teams can’t lift salaries in response to the needs of staff. Under the system, only the three highest-paid employees within an organisation are not included in the cost cap.
According to reports, the idea of dividing the cost cap to separate spending on parts and staff has been raised. There have also been previous discussions about excluding up to 300 staff from the restrictions – although this may be excessive and cause the cost cap to be ineffective.
Toto Wolff told Sky F1 at the Sao Paulo GP that Mercedes had proposed a system to help staff salaries, but it was unsuccessful.
“I would have loved to have a little bit of an uplift,” he said. “The idea that we had was that with more junior personnel that joined the team, we would have more allowance to pay them better and not [having] the salaries suppressed in the first five, six, seven years.
“So we’ve pitched that to the FIA to give us an allowance, not for more front wings but an allowance for salaries to come up a little bit because the cost cap suppresses all of that. But obviously that didn’t score a lot of brownie points.”
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