Lando Norris is the most recent driver to join the chorus of Formula One competitors in demanding for a “heavy punishment” to be imposed on teams that violate the budget cap.
Lando Norris believes that teams would profit for many years to come from any violation of the rule.
The regulatory body of the sport, the FIA, will not announce until Monday whether any of the grid’s teams have infringed the financial rules until after they have finished their investigation into the matter.
On Wednesday, it was expected that the FIA will disclose the teams who had failed to comply with the £114 million cap that had been imposed during the previous season.
At the Singapore Grand Prix, Red Bull was confronted with unverified charges that they had violated F1’s expenses cap during the previous season. These allegations cast doubt on the veracity of Max Verstappen’s title victory over Lewis Hamilton, which was already fraught with controversy.
Since the judgment has been postponed for the time being, Lando Norris is of the opinion that it will cast a shadow over the Japanese Grand Prix. When asked if the punishment needed to be prompt and serious, the McLaren driver responded: “Of course.
“I believe that because teams are searching for and attempting to be as efficient as possible with each and every one of the things that they do, any small amount over is, in any element of Formula One, maybe not tremendous, but depending on what it is, a substantial benefit. I think this is why.
“If there is such a regulation that has been inferred to make things a bit more comparable for everyone and to give all teams a better opportunity at fighting, then it is merely an unfair statistic inside the performance of Formula One. Whoever does something that crosses the line should be subject to a rather significant penalty.”
On Thursday, Hamilton stated that it was “imperative” that the appropriate punishment be meted out, and other people, like Charles Leclerc and George Russell, echoed his sentiments.
Lando Norris believes that the budget cap has favored McLaren over other teams in the pit lane who were spending more and that it would take any team that had crossed the limit years to get back on track.
According to the Brit, “I think for us, it suited us really well in where we were performing and the budget that we had relative to the bigger teams.”
“For the larger teams, it has been a matter of deciding how best to allocate their budgets, taking into account factors such as increased performance, improved aerodynamics, and improved design, among other things.
“There are many additional ways in which you can profit from it, and the important thing to remember is that those benefits do not just last for one racing season. It does not just have a direct impact on your performance while you are racing on the track.
“If it helps you get going in that initial year, it will always have a kind of knock-on effect in the years that follow.
“If it is real, and I don’t know what is true or not, but if it is true, then yeah, it can assist someone focus more last year if that was the case, and then put more people and more development on this year.
“If you can get a new era off to a strong start, then it’s just going to keep you ahead for a good amount of years till kind of everyone starts to catch up, especially so early on, then it would make a tremendous impact.”
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