F1 team boss savages cost cap rules - 'That isn't a healthy sport'

Williams F1 team principal James Vowles has made his strongest statement yet about the sport's salary cap.

The spending limit, announced in 2019 for a 2021 implementation, was intended to make F1 more sustainable for all teams and create a more level playing field, ensuring that teams like Ferrari and Red Bull couldn't just throw an order of magnitude more money at their problems than their smaller rivals.

The former Mercedes man told the Fast and the Curious Podcast that what the system has actually done is widened the gap between the top four teams – Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren – and the rest of the grid.

Vowles claimed that teams outside the top four were roughly twice as likely to finish a race on the podium in the pre-cap era, pointing out that there's only been one race win from outside the Big 4 in the last 130 races – Sergio Perez's Sakhir victory in 2020, which, as Vowles pointed out, was the result of a huge mistake by his old Mercedes team.

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Vowles: Cost cap has made things better...for big teams

Vowles called for Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane to speak up about the cost cap issue, before launching into his tirade.

"Before the cost cap came in," he began, "there were more points scored by teams that weren't the top four teams. Quite a bit more points scored, actually. Back then, about 10 per cent of the podiums was the teams that were in P5-10, now it's five per cent.

"There's been one winner in 130 grands prix that wasn't a top four team. One winner, and by the way that was my mistake – you're welcome. What we've done with cost cap is made things better for the top four teams.

"The gap between all of us is bigger than it's ever been before, the amount of points that we're scoring is less than ever before, and we are investing – and here's the kicker – we're investing huge amounts more than we did before the cost cap.

"That was the difference, Williams wasn't putting the money in, they didn't have the money. Force India weren't putting the money in, they didn't have the money. The world today is a completely different financial element, but I'm being hurt by trying to catch up to others, which is holding me back. And by the way, not just me, it's holding back other teams as well."

Williams boss says F1 'not a healthy sport'

Asked directly if he'd have the same complaints about the state of the sport if he were still at Mercedes and benefitting from their resources, Vowles continued: "I think Zak [Brown]'s been very pragmatic on what he's saying, which is 'I'm open to ideas, show me what it is so I can understand the implication of it', and there's some work to be done in that regard.

"I think Zak and Toto, number one, will always protect their team and their brand. What I'm actually asking everyone to do at this point, it's a very high level question, is the sport a healthier place if you can't predict what's going to happen on any given Saturday or Sunday?

"Right now, the top eight are predictable. It doesn't matter who you are, the bookies will have them pretty cemented in. The top four teams, the top eight cars, are predictable. They're predictable this weekend, they were in Austin, they were in Spa, they were in Melbourne. That isn't a healthy sport.

"A healthy sport is where if we do a better job – and to be clear again, we did not do a good job this winter – but if we'd done a better job with Mercedes or McLaren, we should deserve with the right tools around us to have the ability to go and fight for positions that are a much closer grid. But we don't right now."

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Written by

Chris Deeley - Editor

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