"It's a crucial aspect"- F1 CEO labels budget cap as 'central theme' of the sport in coming months

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali believes the budget caps are a critical part of the sport that will be responsible for leveling the playing field in the next few years. The Italian believes that the FIA is working on ensuring that the regulations have been implemented by all the teams.

Speaking to the Italian media at the Monza race weekend, Domenicali said:

“I think it’s a crucial aspect. We need to be sure that whoever supervises compliance with the financial rules ensures that everything runs smoothly. I know that the FIA is working hard, and it is an important step because we need to be sure that all the teams have spent the same amount in the development of their cars. Everything must be checked and verified. This will be the central theme of the coming months and from here the credibility of these regulations will also come.”

Suggesting that the subject of the budget cap will become an important aspect in the coming months, Domenicali believes that financial parity will be a central theme in the sport in the coming years. The Italian doubts the championship will go down to the wire similar to the 2021 season but believes that the races have sold out despite the lack of thrill in the championship battle. The F1 CEO suggests that technical regulations and budget caps will help in closing up the field in the future.

Elaborating on the current scenario with the regulations and budget caps, the F1 CEO said:

“It is clear that a championship with these gaps between first and the second will not deliver the finale we saw last year. But despite this, we have already sold out in the remaining grand prix on the calendar. I believe that from a technical point of view, it is important to understand how quickly certain performance gaps can be closed, and this is one of the points on which the regulations were based.”

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F1 CEO believes that budget caps will be stricter in future

Stefano Domenicali feels the budget caps and new regulations have bunched up the midfield where the battles have been exciting. Positively looking ahead, the F1 CEO believes there needs to be an analysis of the budget cap implementation and its effect on the entire F1 grid.

Expecting the budget cap to be reduced further in the future, the Italian feels that further caps on financial spending by the teams might close the performance gap further. Domenicali said:

“We also need to see how much the performance of the cars was influenced by the regulations, and how much was down to reliability or management [problems]. It needs a good analysis to understand what caused a big gap between the leaders and the rest. Because if we look at the ranking as a whole, we see that behind the leader there are tighter fights than in the past. I want to give a positive interpretation. I believe that in the next few years, the regulations will lead to an even tighter reduction of the gap that currently exists between the leader and the rest.”

The 2022 F1 season witnessed stricter budget caps imposed with a new set of aerodynamic regulations in effect. Due to economic inflation in Europe, inflated logistics costs, and the war in Ukraine, several teams had issues with the budget caps initially. There have been, however, lesser complaints from F1 teams about budget caps in recent months, apart from complaints about the financial limitations affecting the development of their cars.