Toto Wolff asking for a loophole in the F1 cost cap rule to be closed

The FIA denied reports that up to three F1 teams have breached the 2022 cost cap, amid an ongoing investigation into their finances.

One suggestion is that teams categorise crucial employees in other areas of their business - for example, road cars or boats - to make them exempt from the cost cap, then use their expertise to develop their F1 car.

Mercedes team principal Wolff wants to see this issue policed: "The big teams have thousands of people and various projects - commercial and non-commercial. 

“For us it's a bit easier because we have everything in one entity.

“The employees are all in one place and you can see where they have been attributed.

"It becomes more complex when you have more variety of subsidiaries. 

“I've never been shy of saying with the 2026 regulations we should get rid of all of that overall.

"In the real world, it's quite a challenge because we are making revenue and money with our engineering projects. 

“That means we cannot assign a person who is working in F1, not even for a minute, into non-F1. 

“But I think it's the right thing to do for the sport to say 'this is F1 and this is not F1'. 

“The moment someone spends 10 seconds on an F1 project you should be fully in F1. That's the way we need to go."

Wolff said about the ongoing auditing process into the 2022 cost cap: "They came back with tonnes of questions to lots of teams and that shows how robust the process is, which is good.

"Strong auditors are beneficial for F1. We need to stop any kind of unintentional or intentional breach of the cost cap. It's like technical and sporting regulations.”