Alonso ‘completely trusts the FIA’ as F1 cost cap verdict looms

The FIA didn’t reveal the results of its audit into all 10 teams’ finances on Wednesday, postponing the announcement until Monday.

There has been a raft of speculation in the last week about two teams - Red Bull and Alonso’s new team for 2023, Aston Martin - for potentially overspending and violating F1’s new financial rules.

• Russell and Leclerc demand punishment for F1 cost cap breaches

According to Sky Sports, no team is set to face severe punishment for breaking the financial regulations in 2021, however, this will only be officially confirmed by the FIA on Monday.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s F1 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Alonso insisted that he ‘completely trusts the FIA’ and new president, Mohammed ben Sulayem. 

“Very high, to be honest, “he said. “As I said a few times, I have a lot of trust in Mohammed, the president and his team. I think, still, a few things on the race weekend, some consistency and other topics that we face race after race that we are improving but they’re willing to learn and to improve as well - that’s very positive maybe compared to the past. 

“On other things outside racing, off track, I trust completely what they’re doing and what the outcome will be next week with the cost cap, and how the sport is moving into the future. I have no doubts on anything.”

The 41-year-old warned that the cost cap needs to be “really well done” due to the complex structures of F1 teams.

“I don’t know, it’s a difficult topic from the driver point of view,” Alonso added. “It’s not really relevant here and we rely on our teams to really control everything they do. I guess we all expect from the FIA to police as well as possible all these things because we want to race in a fair environment and things. 

“But it is a very difficult topic, because there is a lot of things that we need to make sure that they are controlled. The budget cap is one thing but there are many teams with different structures, different things, their own circuit in their own factories - things that we need to control a lot. So it has to be really well done.”

“There should be consequences” - Vettel

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel believes “there should be consequences’ should a team not comply with the rules.

 “Yeah along the same lines,” Vettel explained. “We try to control our driving and I think we know when we are right and we are wrong in terms of being fair, giving enough space - we’ve just listened to Nicholas (Latifi) and shit happens as well, but we try to obviously be fair most of the time and I think that’s the same for any governance of the sport is to ensure the fairness is there across the teams, across the year, across the season, across the sport. 

“The FIA is in charge of that and we have to trust they’re doing the job and if you fail to comply to the rules then there should be consequences. It’s a complicated or complex matter and we’re not the best judges to understand but I think the art is to break it down, make it simple and make it clear.”