Fittipaldi: Perfect time to make F1 Cost Cap rules very clear

F1's governing body has taken its time to finally put an end to the highly contentious 2021 F1 World Championship by announcing today their findings on Red Bull's overspending last year, 320 days since last season closed out with the finale in Abu Dhabi.

Prior to this, Max Verstappen was declared and remains (until further notice) 2021 F1 World Champion; however, in the light of the cost cap breach, that triggered a flood of hate among 'fans' calling them out as "cheats" while others fobbed it off as an audit oversight.

The delay in the sentencing has only served to fuel the fire of hate between the Mercedes and Red Bull camps, perpetrated by digital maggots that haunt social media which those two camps have attracted, and like a cancer it growth unstemmed as the race for followers has been run irrespective of the quality.

Nevertheless, today is the day for the FIA to make a vital call on Red Bull's transgressions, they have a fine line to tread as a fine (no matter how lofty) will make a mockery of the F1 Cost Cap concept, as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff aptly explained, when covering that circumstance by stating, they would then factor the fine into their budget. The rich remain richer, in other words.

Fittipaldi, treading softly as many people he knows are affected by this, nevertheless warned: “If the current rules are not clear, now would be the perfect time to make the rules very clear for what happened in Red Bull and for the future.

"If there is a misunderstanding of the rules, if there is a doubtful reading, you should all get together and establish a very transparent, honest set of rules that people understand and then that should be respected with the purpose of equalizing it more for the low-budget teams."

As for what has to be done by the FIA regarding the Cost Cap rule of $125-million that was in place for last season, the double F1 World Champion said: “I think the rules should be clarified. We all have to work to have drivers with more talent and less money, and we have to work within the limitation of the team's budget to have teams of less money be able to be competitive.

“That would be good for the future of the sport and this has to be a collaboration between FIA, the constructors, the drivers, the teams, and Liberty Media, all together working on these two issues. Two important issues for the future," added Fittipaldi, in his column on VegasInsider website.

While speculation is rife in F1 circles, the extremists calling for full disqualification for Red Bull and Verstappen stripped of his title, making Lewis Hamilton 2021 F1 World Champion, trough to those advocating a slap on the wrist for a "clerical error" in the reading of the brand new rules.

Until the sentence is made public, it is fair to say that this is a fine needle that the FIA has to thread to make everyone happy, impossible, but at least - as Fittipaldi says - there are no more grey areas.

As for the F1 Cost Cap breach penalty, considering the circumstances and the impact of a bad call, FIA would probably get away with stripping Red Bull team of all their 2021 F1 constructors' points and the money that goes with that, while Verstappen retains the 2021 F1 title and, all remains the same for 2022... until of course, next year this time.

The F1 Cost Cap is the noblest of intentions in a perfect world of nice people racing in F1; but as much as some try to sell our sport as squeaky, it's packed with rule-bending through to outright cheating, from F1 to bambino karting and everything in between, it's the nature of the beast.

The fact that we are still waiting on ratification of a sporting world championship title that ended 320 days ago, is an absurdity to the max. And what we have for the foreseeable future.