Kaltenborn: There should be no leveling in Formula 1

Monisha Kaltenborn was CEO of Sauber from 2012 to 2017. and at the time actively advocated the introduction of budgetary regulation in Formula 1, but then this idea, also supported by several other teams, could not be implemented.

But now for the second year, the championship participants have been guided by financial rules, and there has been some progress in this area, but this has not saved Formula 1 from the crisis, and one of the main topics of recent weeks has been the budget overrun. committed by Red Bull Racing.

“At the time, we could not agree on maintaining the budget constraints. But the hardest question was how to apply sanctions to violators, Kaltenborn told Auto Bild in an interview. – Moreover, disagreements have arisen that all this will only give rise to condemnation and all kinds of fears.

Perhaps my words will come as a surprise, but now I am very critical of limited budgets. Of course, during the time I was in charge of Sauber, I was very interested in moving to such budgets, because it was the only way to even somehow get closer to the top teams.

Now I am not in charge of the team and I can judge the situation from the outside. Of course it is important that success in sports is not determined by money alone. Finding a way to reduce costs is very important, but limiting budgets is not the best way to achieve it. And now we see it.

One thing to keep in mind is this: why can’t a brand as powerful as Red Bull get more money from sponsors and invest in upgrading vehicles? In a sport like Formula 1, there should be no leveling.

However, there are also other ways, such as the Financial Fair Play principle applied in football, where clubs are not allowed to spend more money than they earn. Then the sport will come back into balance, because in the early 2000s, for example, it was just like that – in those years Sauber racers managed to climb the podium. And it was possible without limited budgets.

Ultimately, everything has to be decided at the expense of technical regulations, because equipment modernization is the main driver of cost growth.

It seems to me that the best way out of the situation for the FIA ​​would be this: not to penalize Red Bull at all, only referring to the fact that the financial regulations provide for certain tolerances. And while that was not the intention when the regulation was drafted, it simply means that it needs to be improved.

From my point of view, all other solutions will be worse. Any sanction will be subjective, as the regulations provide for a number of different types of sanctions. And if it is decided to punish the team by somehow reducing the budget for next season, then this is just nonsense, because the penalty should be applied this year.