Williams team boss James Vowles is confident he can secure the votes in the next Formula 1 Commission meeting to push through changes to cost cap rules – and Red Bull is crucial to the timing of them.
Vowles is leading an effort for a catch-up mechanism to be introduced to F1’s financial regulations to give smaller teams the scope to invest more.
As first revealed by The Race, the idea is for a points-based metric to be introduced that would open the door for teams that are behind in the constructors’ championship to be given greater spending freedoms.
Vowles believes that the current system has left some outfits in a “cost cap trap”, where they cannot close in on the big four teams because of limits in spending, and the legacy advantages of the top squads’ investments prior to the cost cap’s introduction have been locked in.
Furthermore, any capital expenditure on improving facilities has to come out of each season’s running and development budget through a depreciation write off – which further hampers the ability to keep up with the top squads.
As Vowles said in Singapore on Friday: “I could spend my entire budget, my OpEx budget for one year, in all the facilities I need. It’s $200million, that’s what I’m missing right now.
“That means every year, across 10 years, I’ll take another $20million of a hit [in depreciation write-offs on that hypothetical $200 million spend] for coming to that compared to my rivals [which dion’t need to invest as much as Vowles’ $200 million] down the road. That’s not a fair fight.”
Following discussions that have taken place in the paddock in recent weeks, the plan is set to be discussed at the next meeting of the F1 Commission that takes place next month.
Vowles expects a vote on the potential rule changes to be taken there.
For revisions to be implemented for next year he will need backing from six of the current 11 teams, while support from four would be enough to change things for 2028.
As reported earlier this week, it is understood that Vowles has broad support for the concept from four other squads – Cadillac, Aston Martin, Audi and Alpine. This leaves him one vote short of the six what would be needed to get change in place for next year.
Haas is understood to be against changes, as it believes the current system works as intended.
That makes Racing Bulls key to whether changes can be voted through in time for next year. Its support would likely rest on what its sister team Red Bull thinks.
Vowles believes that there is potential for the energy drinks company to get behind his initiative – which could be enough to get change rolling for next season.
Asked by The Race if he believed he had enough support for changes and that critical say from Red Bull, Vowles said: “There’s two approaches, you can either bring it to the next regs, next year, or you can bring it to the regs the year after, which is only four votes.
“Your investment takes a period of time to kick in anyway and my ideal [situation] is to bring it in next year so you know what you’re dealing with.
“But there is a way to deal with it with a number of votes on the table at the moment.
“I actually do think Red Bull is sensible to this. They have an opportunity to invest in their sister team, the values are going up, why wouldn’t you want it to be more competitive with more tools available to you? But that exact conversation hasn’t been had yet.”
While the other big four teams are not likely to be so supportive of anything that would help other squads catch up, Vowles does believe there “is understanding” of the issues at play – which could help things move on.
And he has faith that Formula 1 management and the FIA, which would also need to vote in favour of changes, agree with him.
Asked if F1 and the FIA was on board, Vowles said: “Yes, because it is for the sporting good…They’re completely aligned that this is the direction of travel.”