Ferrari and Mercedes both say it is an "open secret" that two teams broke Formula 1's budget cap last year.
www.bbc.com
Boy, that’s a strong non-denial by Horner in there. I think I heard Aston Martin mentioned alongside Red Bull. (Edit:
Yup, alongside an actual denial and threats by Horner.)
However, there is no expectation within F1 that the results of last year's championship will be changed. But there is serious concern among teams that the championship could be distorted by breaches of the budget cap.
Even a minor breach could give a team a significant advantage.
A 5% overspend in 2021 would amount to an overspend of $7.25m.
This is in the upper reaches of a leading team's annual spend on in-season development, so even a minor breach could amount to the equivalent of effectively an entire season's development.
If true, it seems bizarre that only 7mil of a 145mil budget is allocated to in-season development. It’s also strange that no one thinks there will be any points penalties that could affect last year’s results, but I guess F1 is an entertainment (hi, Netflix!) and amending old results is just too much work.
Funny how everyone explicitly mentioned how the new FIA head is a stickler for the rules.
Anyway, Albon qualified P19, 0.6s ahead of Latifi, who as far as I know didn’t suffer respiratory failure in the past few weeks. We’ll see if his cardio holds up for two hours tomorrow, as a safety car might mean the race hits the two hour time limit before the full 62 laps. Ocon and Russell both qualified well behind their teammates, both blaming (in part) their brakes. Verstappen was IIRC headed for a clear P1 but had to abort his last lap because he ran out of fuel (because he had to do an extra
slow and hot lap thanks to Gasly causing a yellow that forced Max to abort his penultimate hot lap).
Supposedly Gasly will be announced for Alpine on the 5th (same day the FIA announces who followed the budget cap), and de Vries might be in contention for Gasly’s Alpha seat.
Edit:
Joe Saward talks about the driver market for the remaining seats.
Edit 2: The latest on the driver market, with Ricciardo apparentky sitting 2023 out and returning as a Merc reserve(!):
Joe Saward says:
October 1, 2022 at 9:27 pm
Gasly = Alpine
NdV = Scuderia AlphaTauri
Logan Sargeant = Williams
Hulkenberg = Haas (maybe)
It bears repeating that Max was seven tenths up after sector 2 on LeClerc’s ultimate pole time on his penultimate lap (before RB said back off and charge for another lap) and nine tenths up on his final lap (before he was told to box due to low fuel). He could move through the field tomorrow. Still, pretty cool to see the top three separated by just half a tenth, albeit in the not entirely dry.