Brundle: Cost cap breach not the great crime we were being told

The FIA announced on Monday that Red Bull has been found to be in "procedural and minor overspend breaches" while Aston Martin were considered to be in "procedural breach of the financial regulations", without any further details being disclosed.

Former F1 driver Martin Brundle, now a respected pundit of the sport commented on the FIA's findings and the cost cap rules as a whole.

He told Sky Sports F1: "What seems absolutely crazy to me is that a minor breach can be up to 5% overspend on the cost cap, that's $7-Million. We know that is a massive upgrade on a car, maybe even a B spec for certain teams.

"So that needs tightening up for starters, because what's the point of having a $140-Million, whatever the number ends up being, and then having this 5% variance, so I'm assuming that the FIA will have to crack down hard on any minor breaches," he added.

Speculating about the penalty the FIA might apply on the culprit teams, Brundle said: "It looks like it could be a reprimand or a fine. Will they want to revisit points? Whether it be manufacturers' points, or drivers' points for 2021?

"Other teams are saying, well, look, this gives you a head start into 2022. The cars a carry over for 2023. So, you know, this is a big advantage," he pointed out.

Red Bull and Aston Martin may have been caught red handed, but Brundle believes all teams have been playing with the rules and stretching them as much as they can, but expressed his surprise information was leaked.

He said: "Now we know that pretty much all of the teams are gaming this system, within their interpretation , the regulations to varying degrees.

"But quite clearly, and it's it's quite amazing that this information got out over the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, where did it come from? And how did it get out?

"But it does seem that Red Bull have crept over the limit. We're hearing numbers of £1.8-Million. Unfortunately, we're not being told that today, we'll have to wait and see.

"So what will their penalties be? How hard did the FIA want to be on this?," the Briton questioned.

"Christian Horner told me, it's an interpretation issue on a number of items they thought they were under, some things have been included now," the Sky pundit revealed.

"So it's not, it appears, the great crime that we were being told by other team principals in Singapore, so we now await we await the news," he maintained.

Brundle still believes the cost cap is the right thing for F1 despite it being difficult to implement; he said: "I think the cost cap system is brilliant in terms of it's been a cornerstone of why Formula 1 is in a better place today than it has, in my view ever been.

"It's very hard to come up with a set of regulations that can cope with a team like Haas for example that doesn't have a factory effectively, to the unbelievable setup of McLaren, and Ferrari with its own road car manufacturing, for example; Red Bull with its Red Bull technologies and all the different elements these teams have and the different structures they have to them.

"Red Bull, you know, own an industrial estate in Milton Keynes, for example. So something that equalizes all of these different 10 teams in Formula 1, it's very hard to do," he insisted.

"It's obviously very complex, so we'll see if, if the FIA wants to come down hard on the first year of that, but certainly, it needs tightening up because the other teams will be under pressure," Brundle went on.

He pointed out that the outcome will make other teams regret sticking to the cap saying they might be asking themselves "Why didn't you do this? Why don't you overspend a bit and pay a fine or get a slap on the wrist and go a tenth or two faster?".

"So we need clarity, and it needs to be rigid and a 5% variance is way too much," the 63-year-old maintained.

Asked how F1 and the FIA can police the new regulations, he said: "I guess there's going to be a number of areas that were grey in terms of interpretation, and which salaries are in or out, or costs are in or out, and they'll just have to be tightened up.

"And we you know with the regulations, there's so many pages, it's such a complex job. I think the concept initially was at least it's going to stop the team spending two, three, four hundred million, that's been achieved. But now we got to look at the last few million to get fair and across the board.

"And it's also about keeping the pack closer on the grid, the haves and the have nots, as it were in terms of the sponsorship and the the resource, the facilities they have available to them.

"So I think, I think fundamentally, it's been a success, but it's just the it's just the detail now and it's got to be made clear that you stick to the cost cap or just under it otherwise, it's going to hurt," the veteran of 158 grands prix concluded.