F1 News: FIA Plans Budget Cap Changes By 2026 Season To Close Loopholes

The FIA plans to bring in budget cap changes in 2026 to avoid the use of loopholes by teams.

The FIA has disclosed plans for significant adjustments to the budget cap rules by 2026, focusing on the inclusion of full salaries for all F1 team personnel, irrespective of their part-time status. This aims to close loopholes that have allowed teams to bypass the intended financial constraints, according to a report from Auto Motor und Sport.

Key Takeaways:

• New FIA regulations will ensure that the entire salary of any F1 team member, part-time or full-time, counts towards the budget cap from 2026.
• Despite a budget cap introduced in 2021, teams have exploited regulatory gaps, leading to unchecked expansion and competitive disparity.
• The failure of Technical Directive 045 to pass highlights the ongoing challenges in enforcing stringent financial fairness within the sport.

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The introduction of a budget cap in Formula 1 was designed to create a level playing field among teams. With a cap set at around $150 million for operational costs, teams have ingeniously navigated through the extensive financial regulations to find ways around these limits. It has come to light that some of the sport's leading teams have expanded their workforce significantly, with numbers reaching up to 1,500 staff members, not including those in the engine departments.

Some teams have been distributing personnel across various projects and subsidiaries, effectively diluting their cost impact on the F1 budget. Efforts by the FIA to address these concerns, such as Technical Directive 045, have been met with resistance, failing to secure the necessary consensus for implementation. The difficulty in monitoring and verifying the exact involvement of team members in F1-related projects further exacerbates the issue, undermining the effectiveness of the budget cap.

From 2026, the FIA aims to rectify these issues by ensuring that the complete salaries of team personnel are included in the budget cap, regardless of the extent of their involvement in F1.