Ross Brawn, president of Formula One, was very clear when he said:
Whoever breaks the budget ceiling loses the title of the toilet.
That was 2019, but the quote is now causing huge confusion within Formula One.
Almost three years ago F1 decided to set a budget cap, the reason being that the sport would be more equal and the offer better.
But there will be no discussions about what applies, but they will be clear and unambiguous. Ross Brown called for harsh penalties for the stable that had taken away so many treasuries.
Ross Brawn, the sporting director of Formula One, said that anyone who cheats and breaks the financial rules will lose the world title.
– If the stable breaks the rules, there will be serious consequences. It will be a sporting penalty equal to the magnitude of the infringement.
Here’s what Ross Brawn said in 2019.
Confusion after Ross Brawn’s statement
The rules were introduced last year and before this year’s season each team submitted their budget to the FIA. Then came the results on Monday and it turned out that two teams had spent a lot of money. Aston Martin and Red Bull, the team that won the Drivers’ World Championship in 2021 and 2022.
But despite the fact that the champion team spent more money than was allowed, no one yet knows what the penalty was. There is talk that it was a minor offense of less than five per cent (less than $7.5 million) and no one mentioned consequences such as risking losing one or both World Cup titles.
That is despite the fact that that is exactly what F1’s sporting director said three years ago when the rules were set.
Right now, it’s mostly about how big the crime is, whether it’s a misdemeanor or not?
To take a step forward. It’s not quite comparable, but you’ll probably get the point.
Was it overtaking or not when Mike Powell jumped 8.95 in the long jump in Japan in 1991? No it wasn’t. Otherwise, it would not have been approved. Or is a world record approved for passing less than five percent and then the jump boot sponsor has to pay a fine?
Was it offside or not when the ball player scored a goal?
There is hardly a discussion of how much offside the player was – but either he was offside or he wasn’t offside. where to decide.
Ask Stina Blackstenius, who had three disallowed goals for offside during EC this summer. No one agreed to the goal because she was “only” an offside with one centimeter of her shoulder and Sweden subsequently fined her.
Sometimes F1 is hard to understand.
Why are there rules, if they are always negotiable anyway?
short news
Théo Pourchaire gets a chance at Alfa Romeo. He gets an internship on Friday in the US. Williams is also betting on a Formula 2 driver, Logan Sargeant.
Aston Martin also has news, they have signed former F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa as an ambassador.
Mercedes brings an update to the USA: the Grand Prix in Austin next weekend. It’s about improved aerodynamics, but also weight savings. Mercedes was more than ten kilograms below the minimum weight when the season started.
“This is the final step in our aerodynamic development for this year and we hope this will increase the car’s performance,” says Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ responsible race engineer.
It is important to learn from each step along the way and take it with us into the next year.
Mercedes had a hard time figuring out how good their car was on the different tracks. In Singapore, Lewis Hamilton was relatively close to first place, at Suzuka the team was far from the lead.
We had a good race pace, and if we take another step we hope to be in conflict with Ferrari and Red Bull. But it is very difficult to know what we will be like before the qualifiers.
Then I also recommend F1’s podcast, Plattan i Mattan. We discuss the confusion in Japan and the anger of Pierre Gasly.