Toto Wolff has admitted that there is some confusion over how teams who break the budget cap rules should be penalised. The Mercedes team principal says that teams have been voting on potentially giving sporting penalities to those who do not follow the financial regulations introduced into the sport this year. However, he claims that some teams are not in favour of this and would rather a financial penalty was given, meaning that further clarification is needed on the plans. "It just needs to be sorted out," Wolff told RacingNews365.com and other select media. "A large group of teams, seven out of 10 teams, voted in favour of introducing sporting penalties for financial cap infringements. "At the moment, there are only financial penalties. And three teams voted against it, saying we'll take a financial penalty, but we don't want to have a sporting penalty. "That's a bit odd. But I think the compromise that we have achieved now is to understand why that is, and which regulations do they feel are incomplete or uncomfortable." Wolff believes that the issue will soon be resolved. "The target that we have set ourselves is a couple of weeks to sort it out, and then everybody understands that financial cap regulation infringements should be seen just the same as technical infringements in terms of sporting penalties." The budget cap was introduced for the 2021 season to curb costs. Despite initially being planned in 2019, the amount that teams would be allowed to spend was reduced from $175 million per year to $145m due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. That figure will continue to be reduced over the next two years. The new ruling has meant that bigger teams have had to significantly downsize their operations in an effort to meet the budget cap.
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