Brown wants F1 cost cap changes to remove “unintended barriers”

On Thursday, McLaren released their annual sustainability report which outlined how the company is slowly moving towards their net zero target, improvements in diversity and inclusion, and a focus on health and wellbeing.

• F1 cost cap: How Red Bull broke it, their punishment

However, the Woking-based team were critical of the current financial regulations in F1.

Introduced for the 2021 season, teams are restricted on how much they can spend - this was introduced to improve the competitive landscape of F1.

For F1 2023, the base cost cap is $135m, but that is expected to increase due to inflation and the additional races scheduled.

Brown is hoping F1 makes a tweak to the rules to allow teams to focus on sustainability alongside their racing efforts.

"We strongly believe in the cost cap and wouldn't want to see anything that undermines its integrity," Brown said. 

"But current regulations have created some unintended barriers when it comes to investing in sustainability."

"It's been fantastic to see so much support from F1 and other teams on this issue, and we're delighted that the FIA has established a working group to explore next steps."

"But to unlock our sport's potential to drive the development of more sustainable technologies that can spark positive changes on a global scale, we need a genuine step change.

"That requires a level playing field so teams can work towards achieving the same targets and no longer need to choose between investing in car performance and investing in sustainability.

"Our sport needs a clear regulatory framework with financial, technical and sporting regulations that better enable us all to innovate and invest in sustainability. We need to find better ways to share expertise and insights across our industry.

"Only true collaboration will help us drive meaningful change. And if we want to achieve a step change with the new set of 2026 regulations, then those decisions need to be made now."