Binotto suspects rivals of financial irregularities

Ferrari suspects rivals are breaking financial rules and allowing overspending of limited budgets, and the FIA ​​is not strictly controlling the situation with costs.

Last year Formula 1 teams worked under the new terms for the first time and agreed a spending limit of $145 million, but in 2022 this “ceiling” was lowered by a further $5 million.

Maranello has repeatedly emphasized that they are trying to spend money as frugally as possible by limiting the car’s modernization program to a few sets of major updates, while Mercedes and Red Bull regularly introduced certain improvements, but they were on a smaller scale.

Now it has been revealed that Red Bull Racing is preparing to switch to a new lightweight chassis, which could happen at the Singapore Grand Prix in early October.

Mattia Binotto, the head of the Scuderia, said his team would not be able to carry out such an expensive project on a budget, and also questioned that the FIA ​​is closely monitoring compliance with financial regulations.

“I don’t know what they (Red Bull) are doing whether they have a lightweight chassis or not. But in general, adherence to the budget cap always raises questions, and we’ve asked them more than once during the season,” The Race quoted Binotto as saying. – Now we have technical, sporting and financial regulations, and all this can affect the results of the teams depending on how they interpret and execute it all.

We understand that this requires very tight control from the FIA, while the federation needs to focus on the right moments. Otherwise, the Financial Regulation as such will no longer be an instrument that is applied fairly and takes into account the interests of all parties.

It’s difficult for me to judge Red Bull, but we at Ferrari were basically unable to switch to a modified version of the chassis or to a different chassis during the season simply because of budget constraints. I would be surprised if a team succeeds in that.

If someone has succeeded, it means that we have to raise the issue of financial regulation again. Is he honest enough? Does it count for everything? Is it strictly enforced? These are all serious questions.

While these regulations are still very rough, the number of FIA staff overseeing their compliance is very small – all of this needs to be improved in the future. It is bad if the results of the championship are somehow influenced by the financial component, and not by the technical or sporting component.”

Christian Horner, head of Red Bull Racing, only admitted that his team did not use the clad chassis in the days of the Belgian stage, but plans to introduce it at one of the upcoming races.