FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been one of the most controversial figures ever since he replaced Jean Todt in 2021. The Emirati has now stirred up another controversy, and this time it has to do with the cost cap, which came into effect in the same year he became the president.
Ben Sulayem recently gave an interview and suggested that the cost cap could be scrapped. “I’m looking at the cost cap and it’s just giving the FIA a headache,” he told AP. “So what’s the point of it? I don’t see the point. I really don’t.” The cost cap was introduced to make F1 fairer and reduce the gap between the top teams and the smaller teams.
There has indeed been a huge improvement in this aspect as the pace differential across the 10 teams has reduced considerably. Back in the opening race of the 2019 season, the quickest driver in Q1 was a whopping 4.024 seconds quicker than the slowest.
However, in Australia this season, that gap is now down to just 1.235 seconds. McLaren CEO Zak Brown, unlike Ben Sulayem, believes the increased competition in the sport has been a result of the cost cap working like a charm.
“That’s [cost cap] been a game changer,” the American recently said while appearing on the Bloomberg Podcasts. “Last year, we had seven different winners, four different teams that won multiple races. Never in the history since I’ve followed the sport have we had that level of competitiveness”.
: Zak Brown has proposed that F1 teams lose $25,000 from their budget cap for every unfounded protest to the FIA. Aimed at curbing “false and bogus” accusations—especially ones used as “diversions”—Brown said teams should only file if they’re confident and willing to pay for it… pic.twitter.com/bKDWmEJgNe
— F1 Naija (@f1_naija) May 9, 2025
Brown then explained why it was never possible for teams to be so competitive before the cost cap came into effect. He said that since before teams could spend as much as they could afford to lose, the top teams naturally got their hands on the best of technology and the best of personnel.
“Especially in our sport, we’re so dependent upon technology, if you can outspend, you just buy better technology, not just and better engineers,” Brown added. However, since such overspending is now capped, Brown added that “the whole grid is now covered by 2%, so there’s not much between the best and the worst”.
In conclusion, he said that the cost cap has made F1 “really healthy”. With all teams now limited to just a $135 million budget per season, there is much more of a level playing field than there has ever been before.
One key reason that it is still not exactly a level playing field is that the top three engineers and the drivers’ salaries are not included in the budget cap. So, the top teams can still continue to attract the best talent and get a competitive advantage on the intellectual front as well as have the elite drivers in the cockpit, which isn’t a luxury all teams can boast of.
