Ferrari chief says big spending Red Bull could be hampered by F1 cost cap in title fight

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says that he believes Red Bull have have been faster than his squad at the last two Formula 1 races because they have spent a significant chunk of their annual budget on expensive new upgrades, and that he expects cost cap restrictions to play into Ferrari’s hands later down the line.

Max Verstappen has won the last two races at Imola and Miami by overtaking Leclerc relatively comfortably thanks to a straight line speed advantage, having qualified behind the Monegasque on both occasions.

The Scuderia still leads both the drivers and constructors’ championships after the opening five rounds of the campaign, but Red Bull have suffered three retirements so far this season owing to poor reliability caused by separate mechanical failures, and would be ahead in both sets of standings had their drivers been able to finish in the positions they were running in Bahrain and Australia.

Red Bull brought upgrades to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and their increased race pace since then has been evident. All F1 teams are free to develop their cars throughout the season as they see fit, but are bound by an annual cost cap which limits total spending on the running of the team to $145m.

Binotto believes that Red Bull have been burning through that budget in order to find an advantage, while his team still has plenty of wriggle room.

‘At first, I always said that we should wait five races, at least, to assess the proper competitiveness between the cars,’ Binotto explained after Leclerc finished second with team-mate Carlos Sainz third at the end of the Miami race. ‘Now five races have gone and we are leading both championships, which is great, so we should not be too disappointed – but it is true