Vowles pushes cost-cap change for ’two-tier’ F1 grid

James Vowles is pushing for changes to Formula 1’s financial regulations after warning that the budget cap has actually strengthened the dominance of the leading teams.

Reports suggest the Williams boss wants teams outside the top four to be allowed additional spending room, with more detailed proposals expected at the next F1 Commission meeting in November.

Speaking at Sepang last weekend, Vowles argued that the original cost-cap goals of greater sporting equality and a compressed field have failed.

"Currently the top four teams score 83 percent of the points," he said.

"Before that it was in the 70s. In other words, we have made the situation worse, where the top four are the top four and all the rest of us are fighting over, ballpark, 17 percent of the points."

"We have a two-tier championship."

Vowles said teams such as Williams are trapped because money that could otherwise improve the car must first be spent repairing years of underinvestment.

"I’m spending millions, tens of millions actually, just on basic systems, so you just know where a part is in the factory," said the Briton.

"So, we’re caught in a cost cap trap."

He stressed that he does not want the cap abolished altogether.

"The solution isn’t to take cost cap away," said Vowles.

"We have a brilliantly financially stable sport now as a result of it. But we do need to think about what mechanisms we have in there to make sure we’re all playing with the same tools and the same mechanisms, because today we’re not."

Vowles suggested linking additional spending capacity either to championship points or championship position.

"The solution I think we need is something that anyone in this room can understand," he said. "Either championship points-linked, because it gives you the scale, or championship position-linked."

Reports suggest Audi, Aston Martin, Alpine and Cadillac support the idea, while Haas is opposed because it already spends below the existing ceiling.

Flavio Briatore also backed reform, although he argued for simplifying the regulations by putting more expenditure inside one overall cap.

"For me, the best is to put everything inside the budget cap, whatever is the number," said the Alpine executive.