Delay made potential cost cap breaches clear – Wheatley

Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley says the delay in the FIA finalizing its cost cap assessments made it clear a team was at risk of a breach of the financial regulations.

Aston Martin accepted it is in procedural breach of the regulations having not been able to submit audited accounts by this year’s March 31 deadline due to extenuating circumstances, but it is understood no sporting penalty will be forthcoming as the FIA was kept informed and received unaudited accounts in time.

With the FIA still finalizing its review of the 2024 submissions, a number of sources have speculated that another team could be in breach, and Wheatley says the fact the certificates are still to be issued out six weeks later than the previous two years suggests there are areas to examine.

“I think the delay in announcing made it very clear to all of us that there were some teams in trouble – or a team in trouble perhaps,” Wheatley said when asked by RACER about the delay. “I can speak from experience, it’s a very, very difficult thing to balance.

“You want to be competitive. You can imagine – you want to spend every last dollar up against your cost cap limit. Of course you do. That’s what we’re in the business of doing. We’re in racing. We’re in a competitive sport.

“I think the first thing I would say is that nobody’s doing it intentionally. You know, these things happen sometimes. Things can just get out of control a little bit – like a car crash, something like that – and unexpected costs late on. I don’t want to speculate on the cause of it. I think we now understand why we were late in getting the publication from the FIA.”

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the delay in confirmation is not a problem, as long as the right outcomes are reached when it comes to analyzing teams’ submissions.

“It’s not a big deal to have the decision in September or October at the end of the day,” Vasseur said. “On this, we have to trust the FIA that they are doing their job. I think it’s not an easy one, honestly, but we also have to avoid making any speculation on rumors. That would be a mistake.

“If someone did a procedural breach, I think this can happen to everybody. It’s not a sporting advantage. We have to separate sporting advantage with a sporting penalty from a technical mistake or administrative issue. Let’s wait and see.”