Paul Monaghan, Red Bull's head of engineering, explained that the spending cap restricted teams from investing in solutions exclusively for the Monaco GP
The Monaco GP, due to its peculiar characteristics, usually forces Formula 1 teams to bring cars with specific parts for the street circuit. However, the 2022 round in the principality saw few modified cars. Most teams opted only to make changes to the steering, because of the iconic clamp, and the brake cooling ducts. For Red Bull, the explanation is obvious: the spending ceiling prevents investments that do not generate returns at other circuits.
"The Formula One management may not like it, but it's very much because of the regulations. We have a lot of restrictions on what we can do. And the lack of modularity makes it very expensive to do the little things we used to do with all the wings, modifications to the front wing, that sort of thing. It's not practical, it doesn't give results. And because of the regulation that ties us into certain geometries, it's very expensive," Red Bull engineering chief Paul Monaghan told Autosport.
The spending cap has been a controversial topic in Formula One. In recent weeks, Red Bull has even stated that it may end the year in the courts, while rival Ferrari has also called for an increase in the limit. On the other side, Haas wants the current regulations to be maintained. As much as the ceiling prevented major innovations in Monaco, Monaghan acknowledged that the brake ducts should be put to good use in other events.
"Again, it's a pretty big and expensive undertaking. I think if you think about Hungary, Singapore, this is important knowledge, and possibly we will take parts from here to those particular events. Where else might we need the high cooling of the brakes? Probably in Spielberg, Baku with a slightly different arrangement. Then probably Hungary and Singapore, traditionally where you test your luck. Especially in Singapore," explained the British engineer.
The need for more aerodynamic pressure in Monaco has already brought crazy innovations in previous years, such as the X Wings. In recent times, the changes have been less visible, and some believe that even before the spending ceiling, teams were not that focused on specific parts for the Principality.
"On one hand, it has something to do with the spending ceiling," said Jody Egginton, AlphaTauri's technical director. "But thinking back over the last three, four years, I don't remember us really being focused on something big for Monaco, not like we used to be, where we had all kinds of things set up in the car. For us it was, 'this is our package, and we think it's a competitive package for this event.' So we didn't feel the need to bring anything specific to Monaco," he revealed.
The introduction of the spending cap has forced teams to prioritize certain areas of development, and specific parts for just one round are no longer priorities. For Aston Martin, financial management could end up preventing, for example, a car with less drag for the Italian GP at Monza.
"We have constant monitoring of costs, just as we have aerodynamic monitoring or any kind of monitoring. So we have a very good overview of where we are week to week in terms of what we are spending and what the costs will be," told Mike Krack, head of Aston Martin.
"Before we decide whether to have a new package for Monza, for example, or a wing for Monza, we know how much that's going to cost and how much money we'll have if we do that. We obviously have a margin for breakdowns and things like that. If we repeat Melbourne every weekend, we won't do the package for Monza," said the manager, recalling the Australian GP in which the British team suffered from Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel's accidents.
Formula 1 now returns on June 12, for the Azerbaijan GP, in the streets of Baku.