F1 champion demands strict Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari budget cap punishment

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has called for harsh punishments for teams found to exceed the budget cap in F1.

The $140million limit has come under scrutiny this season with soaring inflation rates adding pressure to the bigger teams on the grid, leading to calls for a cap break.

Despite concern from smaller teams, a compromise was reached at the latest F1 Commission meeting in Austria, with a confirmed rise to the cap "permitting indexation at a limited rate of 3.1% [which takes into account the original 3% inflation threshold already set out in the regulations]."

Alpine is understood to be the only team to have voted against the measures.

But 1997 champion Villeneuve is unimpressed with how teams such as Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari have gone about their business and has called on the sport to clamp down on potential infringements.

"We need some proper regulations on what the penalty is for going beyond the budget cap," the Canadian told the Dirty Side of the Grid podcast.

"Right now, they can do a million things but who knows what will be the penalty taken out of the box?"

Referring to the teams that were calling for the budget cap break, Villeneuve said: "It is as if they decided from the start that they would go past it anyway and then argue."

Villeneuve proposes harsh punishment

Despite the introduction of the budget cap at the start of last season, there remains a gulf in resource between the top and bottom of the F1 grid, with smaller teams working way below the afforded limit.

Suggesting a punishment for a budget cap breach could help level the playing field out whilst reviving the possible penalties, Villeneuve explained: "It could be a financial penalty - who cares - or it could be a few points - ok - but it could also be exclusion from the championship.

"Which one would it be? Who knows? It is hard to imagine excluding a team if they go beyond by $1million or $10million, how would it work?

"I think the best penalty would be that if you overspend by $1million, you have to give $1million to every other team on the grid and they are allowed to spend that even if it goes beyond their cap.

"So if the top teams spend $10million more, they would be spending $100million more and the smaller teams would get all that money. Then ok, that would balance it, that would be fun, that would be fair."