FIA confirm Audi F1 given cost cap ADVANTAGE

Photo: © IMAGO

Audi

FIA confirm Audi F1 given cost cap ADVANTAGE

Audi will take over Sauber in 2026

By Sheona Mountford.

Thursday 24 October 2024 03:00

Audi are set to get a huge cost cap advantage over their Formula 1 rivals when they enter the sport in 2026, it has been confirmed.

The manufacturer is set to officially join the grid in 2026, taking over the current Sauber-owned Stake F1 team.

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Audi have made some big acquisitions, including Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto.

Nico Hulkenberg will also race with the team from 2025 onwards, with Audi yet to settle on their second driver to complete their lineup.

Who will race alongside Nico Hulkenberg at Sauber/Audi?

Will Audi be competitive when they enter F1?

Sauber currently sit at the bottom of the 2024 constructors’ standings, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu yet to score a point all year.

Now, it's been confirmed that Audi will be granted an increased budget cap when they enter the sport in 2026, to offset the costs of teams that operate in countries with higher salary levels.

Sauber are based in Switzerland, and their employees salaries are in the range of 35-45% higher than in the UK or Italy, where all of the nine remaining teams are situated.

The budget cap was first introduced to F1 in 2021 to help promote parity between teams on the grid, and it currently sits at $135 million for the 2024 season.

However, this amount is expected to rise to $215m in 2026, with the budget cap Audi will be able to run at yet to be calculated.

Sauber are currently last in the constructors' standings

It is believed that the average salary Sauber have been operating with has been £125,000, which makes up 35-40% of their budget, leaving them working with a lower budget than any other team on the grid.

FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis told media at the US GP: "It is our responsibility to be fair. It became obvious to us that salaries in certain countries are much, much higher and cost of life is much higher in certain countries.

"I see it myself, I live in Geneva. Whenever I go to the supermarket I think about it. And we felt that a team based in a high labour cost country like Switzerland would end up having approximately 30% or even 40% fewer people working on the car, which we felt was fundamentally unfair.

"We've decided that this could either lead to us trying to take some protections from a regulatory point, or it would eventually mean that teams could not operate, and a team like Sauber would have to basically close and move to another country, which we don't think is the right way for the world championship to operate.

"So, that's why there's an adjustment in the financial regulations for 2026 which will basically adjust the salaries that get considered in the cost cap by some factors that get determined by OECD data, data that's available to the world. As we get data from teams, we know that this OECD data is very consistent with the salary differences that exist within Formula 1 context and amongst the engineers of teams. So it's not just OECD data."

The FIA's decision to increase the cap for the team will hopefully help them become more competitive when they enter F1.

Formula 1 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber Jonathan Wheatley Mattia Binotto