Briatore calls for stronger F1 cost cap to give smaller teams a chance

Briatore wants F1’s financial rules strengthened

Flavio Briatore believes Formula 1 must make its cost cap more comprehensive if smaller teams are to compete more effectively with the championship’s established giants.

F1 introduced its first cost cap in 2021, setting the initial limit at $145 million after reducing it from the originally planned $175m amid the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim was to prevent the wealthiest teams from simply outspending their rivals while creating a more sustainable and competitive championship.

The spending gap beyond the headline figure

Driver salaries remain excluded, as do the salaries of a team’s three highest-paid personnel and several other costs. That means the largest teams can retain significant resources beyond the figure presented as their budget limit.

Max Verstappen is estimated to earn around $70m per season from Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari package has been reported at approximately $60m. If driver salaries were included, those payments alone would represent a substantial proportion of the current cost limit.

Briatore also believes the capped era has preserved some advantages built before the rules were introduced. Teams with established facilities, infrastructure, personnel and intellectual property entered the new financial framework with years of investment already in place, leaving smaller operations with a difficult performance gap to close. The issue of how team structure affects competitiveness is also examined in Rob Smedley’s assessment of Haas’ current limitations.

The team cost cap has since increased to $215m, reflecting additional costs linked to Formula 1’s sweeping technical reset. Briatore, who has been involved in F1 since the 1980s, believes that change does not go far enough.

“We have a budget gap, but we need to do something stronger,” he told select media, during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. “Whilst the budget cap was a very good idea, at a certain point we need to make the budget cap much stronger, and we need to include the drivers.”

He added that F1 must include more of the expenditure currently outside the cap to give smaller teams a genuine opportunity to compete. His proposal would significantly expand the financial regulations, but the principle is clear: a budget cap can only level the playing field if it reflects more of the money teams are actually able to spend.