Breaking: FIA announces no F1 team breached the cost cap for the 2022 season

The FIA has announced that no F1 team breached the budget cap for the 2022 season.

The FIA had been auditing the financials of all the F1 teams since the beginning of the season and has given compliance certificates to every team. The teams have to operate under the cost cap of $135m throughout the entire season.

The FIA said in a statement:

“The FIA confirms that its Cost Cap Administration has now completed the review of the Reporting Documentation submitted by each Competitor that participated in the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship in respect of the 2022 Full Year Reporting Period ending on 31 December 2022. The FIA Cost Cap Administration has issued certificates of compliance to all of the ten Competitors.”

There were some fears from several teams regarding the cost cap as earlier in the season they had claimed that the rise of inflation has made it harder for them to work under the cap. In the last couple of months, some reports had claimed that some teams had breached the cost cap. However, the FIA denied these claims in a previous statement, which read:

"We’d like to reiterate the ongoing process preceding financial regulation certification for the teams - none of which have been informed of their certification status. The auditing fieldwork is still ongoing and is scheduled to conclude in the upcoming weeks, after which there will be a period required for the finalization of the review."

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Lewis Hamilton on how the F1 cost cap has hindered their progress

Lewis Hamilton has said that Mercedes have been caught "off guard" by the budget cap as the new regulations do not allow copying other teams' philosophies.

Speaking with Hungarian broadcaster M4 Sports, Hamilton said:

“We’ve been caught off guard about the cost cap. And just the direction of the new regulations, and you just can’t copy and paste and do something different."

However, his comments were contradicted by Mercedes F1 team boss Toto Wolff, who said:

“I’m not sure the budget cap really gives you constraints in the position where we are because we just need to decide which direction we’re going and put all the resources behind it."

The cost cap does hinder some big teams' abilities to throw money over their problems in their attempt to overcome them. It limits their spending on developing their car as rapidly as they did in the previous season, especially in the Turbo-Hybrid era.

With the introduction of a budget cap, F1 teams are forced to plan out their seasons ahead of time and if someone breaches it, as Red Bull did last year, will face the appropriate penalty.