- Budget cap was increased by 3.1% for 2022
- Binotto says it will take time for FIA to police and monitor cap
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto believes there are still question marks over the International Automobile Federation’s (FIA) ability to enforce Formula One’s budget cap.
Initially set at US$140 million for the 2022 season, a 3.1 per cent increase was granted last month to help teams dealing with inflationary pressures.
The 2023 budget cap is also set to receive an increase, but the inflation adjustment figure is not finalised yet as the FIA will make its final decision based on the G7 inflation figure in April 2023.
Historically a financially volatile series, Formula One has slowly been introducing more measures to try and get team finances under control.
However, financial monitoring to this extent has never been undertaken by the FIA before, so Binotto has raised concerns over the budget cap.
“It needs to be policed and monitored,” Binotto told Motorsport.com. “I fully trust the FIA, but the financial regulations are completely new regulations.
“And if you look at the technical or sporting [regulations], it's many years it's in place. Yes, you are retuning, changing a bit the chassis, but still [the budget cap] an unknown field, both from the FIA and the teams.
“We know exactly where things can be done, where it needs to be policed. That is why the financial regulations are completely new regulations for both the teams and the FIA.
“And it will take the time for the FIA, for the teams, to know it, to interpret it and clarify it, police it and monitor it.”
At present, the FIA has a small team working on the policing of the budget cap, but Binotto wants this number to increase so it is on par with the organisation’s division that oversees the technical legality of the cars.
“If I look at how big is the team on the FIA, the financial monitors of the situation… three, four, five people, compared to the tens they have on the technical [side], I'm expecting that maybe in a few years' time it could be tens of people financially monitoring what's going on with the budget,” continued Binotto.
“So, it's a matter of time. But in the meantime, there is a big question mark, so we know we need to go through it.
“I think it's part of the FIA's task and teams' duty to try to speed up as much as we can for the right monitoring but we should be all aware that right now, how is it? A big question mark.”