How F1's new era has exposed the downside of its most important rule

OPINION: From the outside looking in, the cost cap implemented by Formula 1 has been seen as a good thing by many which will bring the grid closer together. But it would be wrong to think that it has made the championship a utopia

Jonathan Noble Mar 30, 2023, 2:17 PM

Upd: May 23, 2023, 6:10 AM

Forget Netflix, embracing social media or the switch to ground-effect cars. When it comes to singling out the most important step change that Formula 1 has made in recent years, it is the introduction of the cost cap.

The new spending limits that came in as part of an emergency package introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic have played their part in helping secure the long-term survival of a grid that should be more compact. As Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer put it: "The smart teams now have a better chance of doing well. We are also saved from ourselves in not spending every bit of money we have, and money we don't have, in trying to go faster.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.