13 January 2023 , 20:18
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The FIA's handling of budget cap breaches made by Formula 1 teams last year will prevent any future "cover ups", president Mohammed ben Sulayem has claimed.
Red Bull made headlines for their overspend in the 2021 season, which saw them slapped with a £6m fine and a reduction of wind tunnel testing time. Aston Martin also fell foul of the rules, though not for actually exceeding the cap.
Their breach was a procedural one and was punished with a much smaller fine and no sporting penalty at all. Despite some complaints from fans on social media, particularly about Red Bull's punishment, it was deemed to be largely fair by most other teams on the grid.
Ben Sulayem is confident that the FIA's response was enough of a deterrent as he warned teams not to try any funny business in the future. "I was very clear with what happened with Red Bull and Aston Martin. We made sure that nothing was hidden, and we were very transparent," he told reporters.
"We did the team [investigation], did the check-up, went through the whole process and we cleared it publicly to everyone. I hope nobody can use the cost cap and try to cover up things. The teams now are very clear that the FIA is there as the governing body. They are there watching, and that is our beauty, that is our responsibility.
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"When it comes to the cost cap, there is one thing, it has to work. Yes, the gap is big, but we just have to push more into it to make sure the other teams come up to the level of the big teams."
Ben Sulayem predicts Aston Martin will be able to soon compete for F1 race victories (Getty Images)While the budget cap rules are still young, there has been little evidence so far to suggest that the smaller teams on the grid are any closer to the big three from a performance perspective. But Ben Sulayem is adamant that will change, pointing to Aston Martin as an example of a team which should start competing for wins within a couple of years.
He added: "The way the investment is going, and then having a smart guy like Fernando [Alonso], I believe yes. Performance first is important. Winning is very hard. You can talk about Ferrari, but Ferrari did not win. But was it because it is slow? No. It's maybe the reliability, the management, the whole thing mixed together.
"I think Aston Martin is not short of the finance. It maybe needs a different way of [doing things] and the changes that [team owner Lawrence] Stroll is changing now into it, bringing another driver, bringing a new discipline to his team, new personnel, that is very important also."