Williams F1 fined $25000 for breaching FIA budget cap rules

F1 team Williams has reportedly been hit with a penalty by the FIA for breaching the agreement regarding the budget cap regulations set for the 2021 season. As reported by PlanetF1, the British team has entered into an ‘Accepted Breach Agreement’ (ABA) with the governing body and received a monetary fine worth $25,000 for ignoring a requirement from last season for the $145 million budget cap.

The Grove-based team failed to submit its documentation regarding its financials to the FIA’s Cost Cap Administration (CCA) for the financial year 2021 in time before the 31 March 2022 deadline. This resulted in a breach of Article 5.1(b), which states that all teams on the grid must disclose and submit their “Full Year Financial Reporting Documentation” by the given date.

The team accepted full responsibility and cooperated with the CCA, for which they were offered the ABA as a solution for the procedural breach. It is worth noting that Williams is not being sanctioned for exceeding the budget cap, but rather for failing to provide the necessary documentation regarding the financials of last season by the set deadline. The team was asked to now pay the fine and submit the said documents by 31 May 2022. It has been confirmed that the fine has been paid and the documents have been submitted, meaning that the matter has officially been settled.

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Former Williams driver says Alex Albon "has done an exceptional job" in the team

George Russell, who was replaced by Alex Albon at Williams after he moved to Mercedes ahead of the 2022 season, admitted that although Albon certainly struggled at Red Bull previously, he is absolutely flourishing at Williams.

As reported by f1.com, the Briton said:

“I think Alex [Albon] has done an exceptional job. There was obviously no secret, he had a tough time at Red Bull, but I think all of us, even probably Max [Verstappen, Albon’s teammate at Red Bull] included, knew how talented Alex was. We’ve all raced each other since 2011. Alex was a few years older than us, so he was sort of competing against [Nyck] De Vries at the time in KF1 [the top level of karting] I remember. And he’s always been there, he’s always been one of the very best. So it’s no surprise to me and [I’m] happy to see that he’s back in Formula 1 and, I think, has cemented his position.”

Albon scored his first points for the team at the Australian Grand Prix earlier this season and currently stands sixteenth in the drivers' standings.