Damon Hill believes that the F1 budget cap could lead to teams further down the grid applying more pressure in the future. The sport introduced a raft of new technical regulations for the 2022 season as well as financial ones, with teams given a cap on spending of $140 million for the campaign. There has been some controversy over the cost cap after Red Bull were found to have breached the 2021 limit. The team were issued with a fine as a result, along with a 10 per cent reduction in aerodynamic testing. However, Hill thinks that the new rules have overall proved successful for the sport. "This season, the new cost cap regulations, it's hard to remember back to the beginning, when this was a completely new set of regulations," Hill told the F1 Nation podcast. "This was all completely new. We didn't know which way it was going to go, and I think it's been a huge success."
Hill expects 'more pressure' from teams further back
While the 1996 World Champion feels that some elements of the regulations may still require fine-tuning, he expects the cost cap to help teams further down the pecking order in the long-term. "There's still a few things that need adjusting," Hill explained. "And we're going to see, long-term, the effects of the cost cap having a role to play and more pressure coming from below, from the teams down the grid who can do more testing [and] more development if they've got the money. "It will get more difficult to win in this formula in years to come."
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