Red Bull and Aston Martin have been found to have breached last year’s Formula 1 cost cap, with the FIA yet to decide on potential sanctions.
Following a delay of each teams financial submissions to the budget cap, the FIA released the outcome of its findings on Monday.
The matter has been a major talking point in recent weeks amid speculation leading up to the Singapore Grand Prix that two teams had spent over the $145m cap.
In a statement issued by motorsport’s governing body, seven of the 10 teams had received their compliance certificates baring Red Bull, Aston Martin and Williams.
While Williams was within the cost cap limit, its breach is due to a late submission of its finances that saw the team fined earlier this season.
Aston Martin, like Williams, has committed a procedural breach of the financial regulations, but Red Bull is guilty of both a procedural and “minor” overspend of the 2021 budget cap.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner had firmly stressed before the FIA’s publishing of its findings that his team had complied with the rules, saying it was “absolutely confident” of being under the limit.
The FIA said it is now convening to determine the “appropriate course of action to be taken under the financial regulations”, with a range of options as punishment for breaching the rules.
A minor breach is deemed less than a 5% overspend but penalties include a fine, deduction of constructors’ or drivers’ championship points, exclusion from events and limitations on aero testing.
The outcome is seen as crucial to F1’s integrity as applying too lenient a penalty could give the view that the cost cap – introduced last year to stop teams overspending – is not doing the job it was intended to do.
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