F1 chief issues warning to teams complaining about cost-cap: "I have slightly less than zero sympathy for you"

F1's chief technical officer Pat Symonds claims he is not a fan of teams complaining about the introduction of a budgetary cap. The Briton claims that he has always worked under a cost cap in the more than 40 years he has spent in the sport and claims he has no sympathy for teams asking for more money following accidents.

The budget cap was introduced as a means of leveling the playing field and stopping bigger teams from out-developing the smaller ones just because they have more funds available. Teams are preparing for a third season under this budget cap but often ask for a higher spending allowance from the FIA following accidents.

Symonds has worked in the sport for more than forty years now and has spent his time as a team principal as well. The Briton claims there has always been a fixed budget for F1 teams and claims he has no patience for teams running to the FIA for more money when they please.

Pat Symonds spoke about modern F1 on stage at the Autosport International:

"When I hear certain people whinging on about the fact ‘oh, we’ve had an accident, so you know, we need more money’. Yeah, I’ve had accidents as well. And I remember one year we had a very, very good development programme going, and we had one of those periods in Monza onwards, I can’t remember what year it was [but] it was in the 90s, and we just had accident after accident after accident."

He concluded:

“The budget didn’t change, so we had to stop the development programme we were working on – so I have slightly less than zero sympathy."

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F1 rivals wanted harsher penalties for Red Bull over cost cap breach

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem claimed some teams wanted a much harsher penalty to be levied on Red Bull for breaching the 2022 F1 cost cap. The Milton Keynes-based squad was found to be in breach of last year's budget, leading to widespread criticism of both its members and drivers.

Despite a hefty fine and a reduction in wind tunnel time being handed out to Max Verstappen and the squad, Ben Sulayem claims some teams wanted much harsher penalties for Red Bull. He told the media:

"I believe that there was a balance between [the financials] and the sporting penalties [handed to the team]. But we learned a lot [from the process] and a big review is going into it, because who knows in the first year [of the cost cap] what is going to be the outcome?"

He added:

"If you look at the other big teams, they will say we have been light on them. [In terms of] the penalty, some of them want [Red Bull] to be hanged, they wanted to see blood, and the teams themselves see this as [a] huge [thing] themselves."

It seems the 2022 constructors' champions will be disadvantaged in their title defense this year. We will, however, only get a realistic idea in F1 pre-season testing of how the financial penalty and reduced wind tunnel testing time will affect Red Bull.