Here is a link to the regs for the 2021 season:
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... -04-30.pdf
I will start by copying my earlier post from the RB thread where a member mentioned inflation.
Someone mentioned inflation previously and I thought id have a quick look in the regs for what is said about the topic.
The FIA call this as inflation, which they get from the IMF.org. The regs are interesting as it does make reference to the cost cap being tweaked to allow for inflation.
The Cost Cap
2.3 The amount of the "Cost Cap" shall be as follows, in each case adjusted (if applicable) for
Indexation:
(a) in the Full Year Reporting Period ending on 31 December 2021:
(i) in the event that 21 Competitions take place in that Full Year Reporting Period,
US Dollars 145,000,000
The budgets are:
2.4 Where an F1 Team has a Presentation Currency other than US Dollars, the Cost Cap for that
F1 Team shall be converted from US Dollars into that F1 Team’s Presentation Currency at the
Initial Applicable Rate. For illustrative purposes, the amount of the Cost Cap in selected
Presentation Currencies for the Full Year Reporting Period ending on 31 December 2021, as
referred to in Article 2.3(a) (assuming 21 Competitions and Indexation of zero) is as follows:
Presentation Currency
US Dollars 145,000,000
Pounds Sterling 114,254,000
Euros 132,034,000
Swiss Francs 144,422,000
Note the phrase (assuming 21 Competitions and Indexation of zero)
That rule specifically says the cost cap can be adjusted for indexation.
Now the same document classes indexation as:
"Indexation" means:
(a) in respect of the Full Year Reporting Period ending on 31 December 2021, the higher of zero
and the amount by which the September 2020 average annual inflation rate as published on
the International Monetary Fund website for the G7 countries exceeds 3.0%; and
(b) in respect of the Full Year Reporting Periods ending on 31 December 2022 and 31 December
2023, the higher of zero and the amount by which the average annual inflation rate as
published on the International Monetary Fund website for the G7 countries for September of
the preceding Full Year Reporting Period exceeds 3.0%; and
(c) in respect of the Full Year Reporting Period ending on 31 December 2024 and each subsequent
Full Year Reporting Period, the rate to be applied in respect of the applicable Full Year
Reporting Period, as determined and communicated by the Cost Cap Administration via a
Determination no later than 31 October of the preceding Full Year Reporting Period.
The average annual inflation rate for the G7 countriesis published on the International Monetary Fund
website at https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PCPIPCH@WEO/MAE. If such rate ceases to exist, the Cost Cap Administration will use an alternative rate which it deems to be reasonably
comparable.
So the rate can be adjusted if it goes above 3% (i believe). That rate was 5.4% in 2021 (not sure what date the IMF take that as) and 7.4% in 2022. So maybe teams can adjust their cost cap to allow for that increase in inflation/indexation.
I mean I could be completely barking up the wrong tree, and it probably needs someone with more accounting/costing background to look at that to make a proper conclusion to it, but that regulation document doesn't say WHO is responsible for adjusting the cost cap based on indexation/inflation. So there is a chance that teams can do this themselves, based on the figures on the suggested website, to adjust their budget to suit.