Formula 1 chief Ross Brawn has warned that the new-for-2021 financial regulations “have teeth” and that teams will face “serious consequences” if they transgress.
For the first time in the sport’s history a financial set of regulations have joined the respective sporting and technical rules, and will be introduced from 2021.
The cap has been set at $175m though does not include some aspects including driver salary – and associated costs – the marketing division, and heritage elements.
The FIA’s entry fee, Super License charges, and the salary of the three-highest paid employees will also be excluded from the cap.
“Financial regulations are the big change, a dramatic change in Formula 1,” said Brawn.
“We’ve tried for these in the past, and we’ve not been successful. I think the crucial thing about the financial regulations now is that they’re part of the FIA regulations.
“So the sanctions from breaching financial regulations will be sporting penalties of some sort, depending on the severity of the breach.
“Whereas before, if any of you remember, we had the Resource Restriction, which was a gentleman’s agreement between teams, well, there’s not many gentlemen in the paddock I’m afraid, and that was a failure.
“But this has teeth. If you fraudulently breach the financial regulations, you will be losing your championship. So it has serious consequences if teams breach these regulations.”
Brawn believes that there will be “challenges” with the implementation of the cost cap and expects that the landscape will evolve as the years pass.
“They’ve been pretty well thought out, but they will need development, like any new regulation,” said Brawn.
“Even the current regulations, as you know, the current sporting and technical regulations are constantly in discussion, and this won’t be any different.
“So I fully expect that we’re going to have challenges in the future to implement this, but it’s absolutely essential for the good of Formula 1 that we have a control on the finances, and how much we spend in Formula 1.”
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