Martin Brundle says the FIA needs to significantly reduce the margin of overspend that represents a "minor" cost cap breach for teams in F1, as the current five per cent level is "absolutely crazy" and "way too much".
The FIA released on Monday the results of its audit and certification compliance process regarding each team's level of spending in 2021.
While Aston Martin and Red Bull were deemed to have committed procedural breaches, the Milton Keynes-based outfit was found guilty of overspending in excess of F1's mandatory $145 million limit.
However, in its report the governing body labeled Red Bull's overspend as a "minor" breach. The definition of "minor" in F1's financial regulations implies that the team spent 5% or less of its cost cap, or anywhere between $100,000 and $7.5 million.
And that wide variance is a big problem according to Brundle.
"What seems absolutely crazy to me is that a minor breach can be up to five per cent overspend on the cost cap," the former F1 driver told Sky Sport.
"That is $7m and we know that is a massive upgrade on a car, maybe even a B-spec for some teams.
"So, that needs tightening up for starters, because what is the point in having $145m and then having this five per cent variant?
"Other teams are saying, ‘this gives you a head start into 2022, the car is carried over to 2023 so this is a big advantage’.”
"It has got to be made clear that you stick to the cost cap or just under it or otherwise it is going to hurt.
"We’ll see if the FIA want to come down hard on the first year. But certainly it needs tightening up. We need clarity and it needs to be rigid and a five per cent variance is way too much."
Procedural rule breaches are sanctioned with a financial penalty by the FIA. But in the case of a "minor" overspend, the Cost Cap panel can impose a financial penalty but also a minor sporting penalty.
The latter include a public reprimand, deduction of constructors’ championship points, deduction of drivers’ championship points, suspension from one or more stages of a competition (excluding the race), limitations on wind-tunnel or other testing, or a reduction of the cost cap.
Brundle was disconcerted by the FIA's relatively vague report in which there was no mention of the sanctions that could be levied upon Red Bull. The Briton suggests that there could be some maneuvering going on behind the scenes.
"It’s very disappointing that that information hasn’t been supplied," he said. "We’re talking about the 2021 season, not this season.
"Quite why they haven’t been able to get to the details… presumably there’s some squabbling going on behind the scenes to mitigate this to explain and come up with some reasoning.
"But it’s thoroughly disappointing that we’ve now had this announcement of what’s happened, but we don’t know the consequences."
Looking towards the future, Brundle suggested that strict corporate governance and compliance, perhaps enforced by a legal document covering the accountability of a company's chief executive and CFO, which is common practice in large corporation such as Mercedes, would perhaps discourage teams to engage in any creative accounting schemes.
"I think all of the teams will be somehow or other making the absolute most of their interpretation of these regulations – overheads are certainly no longer for this department or which personnel are over there working on something else…" he said on Mondays' Any Driven Sunday podcast.
"But I think also - and it’s a good thing - that the corporate governance of somebody like Mercedes-Benz, for example, is such that they just can’t be seen to be breaching something like this.
"I think that needs to be the same for all the teams.
"I like to think, and I understand it to be the case, that somebody like Toto has to sign a document to comply with there and Christian Horner at Red Bull and all the key personnel, all the financial personnel, should be personally locked into this.
"I think that’s a critical area so that they’re personally responsible and accountable, as well as their company in being transparent and honest and accurate with these numbers."
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