Formula 1, budget cap: new suspects – Corriere.it

Smiles and grimaces. Inside Ferrari there is no room for half measures this year. Sainz just 22 thousandths from Verstappen
ignites hopes in front of his former boss, Matthias Binotto, present yesterday on the English track as a guest of F1. Excited for a return with strong sensations, he who celebrated Carlos’ victory here twelve months ago.

Leclerc stopped in the garage in the second free practice session with the car dismantled. Short circuit, they explain, the electrical problems prevented him from lapping in the most important session. The good news is that in the red box they don’t expect to replace elements that would trigger penalties. However, the exams will continue today. The bad news is the arrival of the rain, he has always suffered recently on the damp asphalt.

Max, on the other hand, always flies and is no longer news. Rumors on new shadows relating to the budget cap are holding the scene. They would concern one or more teams. Last year, Red Bull had overstepped by getting away with a light penalty (7 million fine and 10% cut in wind tunnel hours) after having settled with the FIA. From the indiscretions of insiders, another hot season finale is announced in terms of financial rules.

Budget cap, the suspects

By 31 July, the teams expect to obtain the certificate of conformity on the accounts informally from the Federation, but the times are destined to lengthen. According to insiders, it is confirmation that something wrong has been found. Inside Ferrari there is tranquility on the subject. It seems to go back in time, to last season, when suspicions had led to sentences. With one difference: the Federation has tightened the checks to verify the correspondence between the documents sent by the teams – each file contains 200 pages of numbers – and the use of resources in the factory and on the track.

Those who have undergone inspections tell of real “interrogations” of employees. Anyone who has participated in a meeting, for example, must indicate the other interlocutors. These, in turn, are felt. Those who left the team were also listened to, in the hope that they will reveal interesting insights on the previous season.

Attention, with regard to the 2022 budgets, focused on parallel projects of some teams. Sailing, bicycles, road supercars, Red Bull has transferred engineers to these tasks. Gray areas that are difficult to control that the FIA ​​has tried to close with a recent technical directive, to prevent research carried out in other fields from being used to circumvent the budget cap.

A mechanism that modified the F1: it is the financial director together with the technical director who decides whether to approve an aerodynamic development. F1 has its face on compliance with the cost ceiling, the new grandiose headquarters of Aston Martin (another team that was fined for “procedural violation” in 2022) at the entrance to Silverstone, for example, has not gone unnoticed by rival accountants .