(Motorsports news) The other teams have also been given smaller extra spending limits in an effort to reach a consensus for an agreement. CapEx became a talking point this season as the FIA financial regulations hit home. Teams like Williams who had lagged behind in investing in their facilities complained that it would be impossible for them to improve their infrastructures and eventually compete with the frontrunners.

Various options have been discussed in recent months. The big challenge was that giving the same extra limit to all teams would not have closed the performance gap, as the big players would always find somewhere to spend the extra allowance and ultimately make their cars faster. The FIA and the teams have finally settled on a league table of spending that in effect splits the field into three “divisions”, with the world championship results of 2020, 2021 and 2022 used to determine the order.

The arrangement is somewhat similar to the aero testing restrictions that give more tunnel time to the teams at the bottom of the pecking order, except that there are three stages, rather than a sliding scale for all 10 teams. Within the financial regulations, the maximum CapEx figure quoted for each year is actually a rolling total for that season and the three preceding seasons added together.

The original CapEx headline figure for the 2024 season was $45m per team, which represented the maximum spend for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 combined.

For the teams in the top “division” – namely Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari – that number has now increased to $51m, giving them an extra $6m to invest compared to what was originally planned, although sources indicate that the FIA didn’t want to give the big teams any extra allowance.

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