MEXICO CITY -- Aston Martin has committed a minor procedural breach in its compliance with the 2024 Formula One cost cap. The news comes during an unprecedented wait for the FIA to publish its findings on the entire grid.
Teams are subject to a yearly audit by the financial department of motorsport's governing body, to ensure they comply with the limits on spending that were introduced in 2021 to make the sport more financially sustainable. This started at an initial figure of $145million per season.
The FIA is yet to announce any results from the 2024 season review, but it has emerged that Aston Martin has committed a small, procedural breach.
A person from Aston briefed on the matter, who spoke with The Athletic on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the team was subject to a procedural breach under the 2024 cost cap, but there has been no financial sanction or any other punishment taken as a result.
This is because the procedural breach was a late finalization of Aston's cost cap submission, which had it in compliance with the financial restrictions in place for 2024. The delay followed an auditor being unable to provide his signature by the deadline due to extenuating circumstances beyond the team's control.
Despite this, Aston still had to enter an 'Accepted Breach Agreement' (ABA) with the FIA to acknowledge it had committed the breach, even with no consequences. This is the standard procedure for such breaches.
Official confirmation of Aston's procedural breach will be delivered by the FIA when it issues the full results of its cost cap audit for the 2024 season. When this is issued, it will come at the latest stage in a season since the first audit results were released -- in the 2022 campaign regarding the 2021 submissions.
The results were issued in 2022 on Oct. 10, but in the two years since then, cost cap communications were issued on Sep. 5, 2023 - stating all 10 teams had stayed within the cost cap in 2022 - and on Sep. 11 2024. Then, both Alpine and Honda's engine projects were found to have made procedural breaches relating to the 2023 cost cap.
In 2022, Red Bull was found to have exceeded the 2021 cost cap by 1.6 percent ($2.03million) and was hit with a $7million fine and a reduction of its wind tunnel time for car design development in 2023. This was deemed a minor overspend by the FIA.
In a statement supplied to The Athletic by the FIA, F1's governing body said: "The FIA's Cost Cap Administration is in the process of finalizing the review of the 2024 submissions from teams and power unit manufacturers, the result of which is expected to be communicated shortly.
"The FIA does not comment on individual submissions made by specific teams and/or power unit manufacturers and, as per established practice, the results of the review will be made public once assessment of all submissions are completed and finalized."
Aston was also fined $450,000 for another procedural breach relating to the 2021 cost cap, which related to costs on its submission including the building of its new factory at Silverstone.