"F1 is no longer the best-paid industry": Adrian Newey speaks out on the biggest drawback of cost cap

Aston Martin Managing Technical Partner Adrian Newey claimed that F1 was "no longer the best-paid industry" and was unable to sustain the biggest talents due to cost cap restrictions. The sport introduced the cost cap regulations in 2021 in its bid to close the gap between the teams in terms of developing the car.

After starting with $175m in 2021, the cost cap was cut down drastically to $135m in 2022 but with the additions of three races in 2024 and 2024, the cap would be increased to $140.4 million.

The teams have seen drastic cuts in pay and their development budget to stay under the cap otherwise they will risk getting a penalty. One of the drawbacks of the cap has been F1's inability to pay big wages for their staff, which has led to a lot of brain drain to other teams in the sport or other categories.

Commenting on the issue in his interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Adrian Newey said (via PlanetF1):

“The cost cap, though, does come with a lot of hidden penalties, one of which is it actually means Formula 1 is no longer the best-paid industry. So for instance, at Red Bull, at the start if we lost people, it would almost invariably be to another F1 team," Newey said.

“Now we’re losing people to tech companies because they pay better. We’re losing people to WEC teams because they pay better. We’re struggling to get graduates because Formula 1 can’t afford to be the best-paying industry anymore, so it has a lot of, let’s say, unexpected penalties to it," he added.

Adrian Newey left Red Bull in early May last year and joined Aston Martin in his quest to take the latter to championship glory after almost two decades with the Austrian team.

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Adrian Newey gives his take on the upcoming 2026 regulations

Adrian Newey felt that the 2026 regulations could be an "engine formula" and could have one team dominating which has cracked the new engine regulations.

The aero wizard spoke about the changes and said (as quoted by ESPN):

"There has to be a big chance that it's an engine formula at the start. I can't remember another time in Formula 1 when both the chassis regulations and the engine regulations have changed simultaneously, and where in this case the chassis regulations have been very much written to try to compensate, let's say, for the power unit regulations. So there's an extra dimension."

Adrian Newey will start working with Aston Martin F1 from March 1 and will largely focus his energies on the 2026 car. With the Silverstone-based outfit ditching Mercedes in favor of Honda next year, there are a lot of expectations for the British team next year.