FIA action urged to help F1's smaller teams fight

Alfa Romeo Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi has called on the FIA to help enable smaller teams catch up to the resources of bigger rivals.

F1's budget cap was brought in for the 2021 season to stop teams with bigger budgets out-spending smaller outfits, but a disparity in resources between the top and bottom of the grid remains.

Alunni Bravi has claimed the financial restrictions prevent teams from building up their resources to match those who are succeeding in Formula 1 and told Mundo Deportivo: “If we really want to get to a point of creating opportunities for everyone to aspire to at least podiums, we have to end this structural difference between big and small, allowing the smaller teams that have not operated at the level of the budget limit of the year previous to invest resources - not to surpass the big ones, but to recover that difference.

"These high-cost investments are limited by regulation. It is something very important and it is the element that could create more spectacle, allowing not only three teams to fight for victories but many more."

Alunni Bravi 'not surprised' by Aston Martin success

Aston Martin has shown that effective resource management can lead to progress up the field, while also making use of F1's sliding scale rules for aerodynamic testing.

"I was not surprised," explained Alunni Bravi when asked about Aston Martin's rise to third in the Constructors' standings.

"They already had a very solid base and to that they have added investments and a driver like Fernando Alonso, of a very high level and who right now is making a difference, as in Monaco and the rest of the races."

Alfa Romeo has failed to kick on from a promising start to life under F1's newest technical regulations last year and have so far amassed only eight points this season.

But Alunni Bravi has cooled concerns and pointing to a "good plan" for a future transition into the Audi works team, he added: "The consequences of this [planning] will be seen over time, because ours, like Sauber and now with Alfa Romeo, is a path started in 2017 from the 10th in Constructors' [standings] to reach sixth position [last year].

"This year, the championship is much more competitive, but we want to continue with our growth and we must only have the patience to make the right decisions."