13/05/2025
NEWS STORY
FIA president, Mohammed ben Sulayem says he doesn't see the need to continue with the cost cap.
At a time the sport is celebrating its 75th year, it is easy to forget how close we came to losing it.
The days of buying a Ford DFV, a Hewland gearbox and sticking them in an old chassis from McLaren, Brabham, March or Lotus and entering your home Grand Prix are long gone.
The loss of vital sponsorship money from the lies of tobacco companies aside, as the sport continued to develop constructors and manufacturers would throw money at their F1 programmes in search of success, causing rivals to either join them in their spending insanity or go under.
Max Mosley was aware of the threat this was to the sport and, in partnership with Bernie Ecclestone, tried to introduce a budget cap, but even as teams, many of them legendary names, fell by the wayside, the grandees fought to resist, even to the extent of threatening to form a breakaway series.
And yet, no sooner had Liberty Media gained control of the sport in early 2017 than the teams fell in line, and by 2021 the cap was in place.
Teams are no longer falling by the wayside, indeed, if we are to believe the claims even those struggling at the back of the grid are worth "north of a billion".
This is why, following the success of the Cadillac bid there is now talk of a twelfth team, while those struggling to make it into Q2 every on Saturday are still determinedly holding on, aware that despite their lack of success there could still be a bumper pay day on the horizon.
Despite early fears, only one team has fallen foul of the cap, and while the field has converged it is widely felt that this is more about the rules stability as opposed to spending limits.
The cap, currently set at $220m, is policed by the FIA, and Ben Sulayem appears to believe that it isn't worth the effort.
"I'm looking at the cost cap and it's just giving the FIA a headache," he tells AP. "What's the point of it?" he adds. "I don't see the point. I really don't."
At one time the teams would have been right there with him, the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes seeking the freedom to buy their way out of their deficit to McLaren, but with all that talk of teams being worth "north of a billion" no-one is willing to rock the boat, not even the big guns.