Brawn warns teams on budget cap: "Serious consequences if they break regulations"

Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn has warned teams on breaking the new budget cap regulations which will take force in 2021, as the Brit said there will be "serious consequences" if teams don't comply with the rules on the financial side.

The budget cap, which we break down here, will significantly impact some of the bigger, higher spending teams on the F1 grid as they will not be allowed to spend more than $175 million a year when it comes to performance of their cars.

This will be regulated closely, of course, and there will be a penalty system in place for teams breaking the rules, which can happen in three different ways.

Firstly, there is the 'procedural breach', meaning a team submits their financial accounts either late or inaccurately. The second breach is a team going over the cap by five or less percent, and lastly, there is a breach of teams overspending by more than five percent. 

“I think the crucial thing about the financial regulations now is that they’re part of the FIA regulations. So the sanctions from breaching financial regulations will be sporting penalties of some sort, depending on the severity of the breach,” Brawn explained at the press conference on Thursday where the new regulations were revealed.

"If you fraudulently breach the financial regulations, you will be losing your championship. So it has serious consequences if teams breach these regulations.”

Teams will have to submit their accounts of a full year by March of the following year. Punishments of any of the infringements we mentioned above can range from reprimands to points deductions to disqualifications from the championship, depending on the severity of the situation.