F1 teams no longer able "to run away and hide" - Ross Brawn

Ross Brawn

F1 teams no longer able "to run away and hide" - Brawn

Budget cap has played a major role

Ian Parkes

Monday 17 January 2022 11:20

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Ross Brawn believes the introduction of a cost cap stopped F1 teams from throwing money at whatever problems they encountered and delivered a more rewarding title race.

For the first time in the sport's history last year, the teams were limited on what they could spend, with a ceiling set of $145million.

Allied to the budget cap, that for the coming season falls to $140m and from 2023 onwards to $135m, was a focus on this year's all-new aerodynamic regulations that also played a significant role

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Brawn, F1's managing director motorsports, feels the foundations have now been laid that bode well for the future.

"The cost cap is a very fundamental change in Formula 1," said Brawn in an interview with The New York Times.

"It stops the rich teams from continuing to throw resources at a challenge. They have to work within a limited resource that they can afford around the cost cap.

"With the cost cap we have now, there's probably four or five teams that are right up to it. As that is reduced, there'll be more teams.

"I think the majority of teams in Formula 1, within the next year or two, will be operating to the limits of the cost cap, which means everyone's then got the same resource. That's a very important point.

"One of the reasons that it [last year's championship] stayed so close was the teams didn't have the resources they could throw at it as in the past.

"It was the first year we applied the cost cap and Mercedes and Red Bull were unable to turn the dial up to 11. They were not allowed to.

"So that meant the championship stayed close the whole season. We didn't have one team running away with it because they threw massive resources at the issue."

Brawn feels F1 has been a victim of its own success as it has grown over the years due to the fact the value of winning became so high there was the justification for spending considerable amounts of money to achieve race and title wins.

That has now been tempered. Brawn added: "We said 'It's a substantial budget to compete in Formula 1, but we're going to limit it. You can't keep spending'. That brings a closer championship, a closer competition.

"There's also been quite a lot done with the regulations, tyres, wheels, other aspects of the car to bring closer competition in the future but still having a meritocracy.

"We still want the best team and the best car to win, and the best driver, of course.

"But we don't want them to run away and hide so I'm very optimistic for the future."