Sergio Perez has lived on both sides of F1’s spending divide, and he says the current cost cap is widening the gap he was supposed to help close.
Speaking to reporters, including Motorsport Week, the Cadillac driver argued that the flat ceiling punishes new and smaller operations in a way he never had to think about during his years at Red Bull.
“We are obviously a new team and a small team. I think the cost cap these days is a lot more unfair for smaller teams because when I was at Red Bull, for example, we used to bring upgrades pretty much every weekend. You never heard anything about the cost cap. It was all about performance, bringing, and throwing everything you could.”
Cadillac have entered the sport this year as F1’s 11th team and are yet to score a point.
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A sliding scale instead of a flat ceiling
Williams team principal James Vowles has formally proposed a sliding-scale cost cap for 2027, under which teams finishing lower in the constructors’ standings would be allowed to spend more than those at the top. Vowles does not want to scrap the cap, which he credits with stabilising the sport’s finances, but to pair it with a catch-up mechanism for the chasing pack.
The F1 Commission is scheduled to vote on the plan next month, according to The Race. Six of the 11 teams, including Williams itself, would have to back the proposal for it to take effect in 2027. A 2028 start would require only four.
Alpine, Aston Martin, Audi and Cadillac are understood to support the plan, giving Vowles his own vote plus four, one short of the threshold for 2027.
Perez: the cap builds the gap it was meant to close
“When you are in smaller teams, because they’re not as efficient and they don’t have their methods as clear, you end up overspending so much more money. So actually, the cost cap, instead of making it closer between teams, creates these massive gaps that we currently have on the grid.”
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Vowles has made the same case with a number attached, telling reporters that the top four teams score 83 per cent of the points available under the current regulations.
Mercedes and Haas lead the resistance
The proposal looks set to fail. Haas is believed to oppose any change, and Racing Bulls, considered one of Vowles’s possible swing votes, has indicated it will not back the plan either.
“I don’t think we would support a wholesale change to the cost cap rules to start being able to spend huge amounts more money,” Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane told The Race.
Mercedes principal Toto Wolff has publicly rejected the sliding-scale idea, framing it as results-based regulation that would politicise the rulebook.
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“Do we really want another mechanism where you’re being allowed to have more CapEx, OpEx based on your championship position?” Wolff said earlier this week.
Wolff also argued that Mercedes and other front-runners already carry a disadvantage under the current rules, because they must depreciate past capital spending while teams that did not invest heavily enjoy more flexibility now.
The F1 Commission meets next month. On the maths currently in the public domain, Vowles is one team short.
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