Brown holds teams responsible for breaching cost cap: 'FIA have been clear'

Zak Brown believes the FIA has done a good job with the cost cap. According to the McLaren CEO, teams were allowed to ask the FIA as many questions as they wanted in case of ambiguity about the rules. Brown therefore thinks the teams are fully responsible for any breach of the budget cap.

On Monday, the FIA announced the findings of its investigation into the 2021 Formula 1 teams' financial submissions. In this, Red Bull Racing was found guilty of slightly exceeding the budget cap. The team announced it was "surprised and disappointed" as it believed it had stayed under the limit. The FIA has not yet announced what the penalty will be for the offence.

Brown supports the FIA's work. The governing body has also faced a lot of criticism. "I think it’s now all about how (the FIA) handle it moving forward. I think we can’t judge them on their transparency. It was good that they said, ‘It’s not coming on Wednesday, it’s going to come on Monday’ — they were clear", the McLaren CEO tells RACER.

Brown: 'FIA has done a really good job'

According to Brown, teams could go to the FIA throughout the season to seek clarification on matters relating to the budget cap. According to the American, it is therefore up to the teams to comply with the cost cap. A breach cannot be blamed on uncertainty or high spending in certain departments unrelated to car performance.

"The FIA have been unbelievably collaborative, communicative and clear. And if anything was unclear then the obligation was on the teams to ask. The FIA has done a really good job on the cost cap, and you can go to them and ask them anything: ‘Hey, is this included? Is this not included?’ And when you go over budget you go over budget, so it needs to be dealt with swiftly and transparently.”