Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team committed a “very minor” procedural breach as part of the FIA’s 2024 Cost Cap review – although the team will not be punished over the error.
The review, which judges compliance with the 2024 F1 financial regulations, was published on Tuesday morning alongside documentation detailing the Aston Martin transgression.
The issue was resolved after the team signed an Accepted Breach Agreement and will not result in sporting or financial punishment.
Sector understands the breach relates to Aston’s external auditors missing the March 31 deadline to file the required documentation due to a medical emergency, which prevented them from doing so.
The FIA confirmed Aston Martin did not exceed the cost cap up to December 31, 2024, and said the team “acted cooperatively” throughout the review process, including submitting unsigned versions of its reports.
The other nine F1 teams and five power unit suppliers were also found to be compliant with the regulations following the review of 2024 costs.
“The Procedural Breach occurred in exceptional and unpredictable circumstances entirely beyond AMR’s control and which prevented AMR’s Independent Audit Firm from signing the 2024 Full Year Reporting Documentation thus preventing AMR’s submission of the same by the Full Year Reporting deadline,” the Accepted Breach Agreement summary read.
The summary also stated that the signed documentation was submitted at the earliest opportunity and was identical to the unsigned version sent before the deadline passed.
“Consequently, AMR did not gain or seek to gain any advantage from the commission of the Procedural Breach at issue. These considerations shall be treated as the relevant mitigating factors,” the summary stated.
“Based on the specific circumstances of this case, and taking account of the Mitigating Factors outlined above, the Cost Cap Administration has determined that sufficient mitigating factors exist to justify the imposition of no sanction under Articles 6.28 and 8.3(a) of the Financial Regulations.”
Aston Martin had to bear the cost incurred in preparing the Accepted Breach Agreement but, having acted in a timely and transparent manner, the Cost Cap Administration now considers the matter closed.
Last year’s cost cap review found that the power unit programmes of Alpine and Honda had both breached regulations while in 2022, Oracle Red Bull Racing was fined $7million and had its wind tunnel time reduced, having exceeded the previous year’s cost cap by $2.03million.
