Toto Wolff dismisses Ferrari’s concerns, confident FIA can police cap

Jamie Woodhouse
Christian Horner, Toto Wolff and Mattia Binotto. Monaco, May 2019.

Red Bull's Christian Horner, Mercedes' Toto Wolff and Ferrari's Mattia Binotto speaking at the Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco, May 2019.

Ferrari may have concerns over the FIA’s policing of their budget cap, but Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has no such worries.

Amidst chatter that Red Bull were looking to introduce a new, lighter chassis before the 2022 season comes to a close, Ferrari principal Mattia Binotto raised suspicions over how that could be possible while adhering to the budget cap.

Binotto had expressed doubts over the structure in place for the FIA to adequately police the cap.

The initiative came into play ahead of the 2021 season, taking away the spending power advantage of the big teams, with the goal of creating a more level playing field.

 

 

“The number of people in the FIA monitoring it is very little,” said Binotto of the cap, as per BBC Sport.

“It has to improve for the future because it would be really bad if somehow a championship was dictated by a financial regulation and not technical or sporting.

“I cannot know what they are doing, if they have a [lighter] chassis or not, but the budget cap is always a concern.

“Ferrari would never be capable of introducing a lightweight chassis or a different chassis through a season simply [because of the] budget cap and I would be very surprised if a team is capable of doing it.”

Wolff has also been asked whether Mercedes could introduce a new chassis at this stage of the season and still fall within the cap, to which he confirmed they could not, though he has now been quizzed on Binotto’s concerns.

And in Wolff’s opinion, the FIA does have all the tools it needs at its disposal to make sure that all teams are respecting the cost cap.

“I saw Mattia mentioning that,” said Wolff, as per GPFans.

“I have no doubt in the FIA’s new regime that they will not police robustly and they will be policing to what the governance says and the financial budget cap regulations is as important as sporting and technical so let’s see what the outcome is.

“But if you breach, then you breach, that is an advantage you have gained and that needs to be sanctioned. But again, I am speaking about something I am not involved in.

“I have confidence in the people, I have confidence in the system, I have confidence in the governance.”

Heading into the Italian Grand Prix, Mercedes sit P3 in the Constructors’ standings, only 30 points behind Ferrari.