Steiner backed by Wolff and Brown in encouraging cost cap change

Guenther Steiner believes the Formula 1 cost cap process is now "more mature" after all 10 teams were found to be in compliance with the rules.

In September, the FIA announced that every team had been granted its certification of compliance for the 2022 cost cap.

This came after the results of the 2021 review in autumn 2022 that found Red Bull to have breached the spending limit in '21 by about $432,000 once a tax issue was cleared with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), with the FIA aware of the situation at the time.

Fortunately, given the toxicity that erupted on social media in the aftermath of the announcement and Red Bull's entering into an Accepted Breach Agreement with the governing body, there was no repeat this time around - with Haas boss Steiner praising the work done by the FIA and teams themselves.

Cost cap process matures

"Fair play to Federico [Lodi, Single-Seater Financial Regulations Director] because when he started, he didn't know what he was getting into, how complex [the rules] are," Steiner explained to media including RacingNews365.

"You need to step up and the teams stepped up to give better information, and it is just a more mature process now from both sides, which helps to make it better."

Steiner's thoughts were echoed by Toto Wolff of Mercedes and McLaren's Zak Brown.

"The result was that all teams got the certificate of compliance and in that respect, that's good to know," said Wolff.

"It seems everybody has been checked thoroughly, and all possible ideas in the background have disappeared because they got the carte blanche, or the ones that were maybe suspected to not have passed it.

"We just need to get on with the rest now."

As for Brown, he expressed his happiness at the fact the FIA clamped down on a potential loophole with the issuing of TD045.

"With TD045, there was a reason why that was put in place, and so hopefully that will close any additional loopholes," Brown said.

"Everyone passed this year, which is good for Formula 1. Formula 1 teams try to be as clever as possible. And hopefully, TD045 is something that will close any loopholes that may have still been existing.

"I think the cost cap was always going to be a bit of a learn-as-you-go."