The FIA puts a stop to F1 cost cap loophole that could have cost millions
The FIA has put a stop to a potential loophole in Formula 1's cost cap regulations which could have seen teams save millions of dollars.
So what is the loophole the FIA is clamping down on?
The FIA is clamping down on F1 teams using outside projects to help develop their cars in order to gain more performance. Over recent seasons teams have employed senior staff to work in seperate divisions on outside projects to exploit technologies and knowledge in Formula 1 to sell to other businesses and industries around the world.
Teams such as Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin all have divisions outside of its racing teams dedicated to using F1 knowledge to apply to products created by other businesses. These have all been successful with F1 technology being involved in road cars, America's Cup yachts, bicycles and other industries that use the advanced technology.
However the FIA have had their suspicions that teams were potentially using their outside projects to help develop their cars. Any work that would have been completed by the teams thanks to information they found from their outside projects would have not been shown on the cost cap and would be free of charge.
At the start of the year a new technical directive was drafted but has now been changed and put into force. The FIA has made it clear to teams that any use of Intellectual Property from any project running outside of their F1 opertations being used will now fall under the cost cap. TD45 as it has now been referred to states that teams are still free to use these special devisions but any IP that used by F1 teams must now be included in the cost cap.
With TD45 now in place it means that free sources cannot come within the same company. Teams with specialist divisions insist that they are fully compliant with the rules. Meanwhile some sources are saying that the new technical directive has already affect on some teams.
The FIA has also been visiting team factories in recent weeks for analysis of teams finances with reports suggesting that the new questionaire the governing body is handing out to teams now has over 100 questions which is now far higher than it was 12 months ago.