Christian Horner argued that the "little teams" on the Formula 1 grid should have less of a say in rule changes which "quite simply don't affect them".
Under current rules, affecting the seasons between 2021 and 2025, teams have more equal voting rights than was previously the case. That means they can introduce legislation which affects the bigger teams and have more of a chance of it passing – and they also have more power to shoot down proposed rules from those top teams.
Horner, team principal at Red Bull, is unsurprisingly not delighted with that arrangement. When discussing the budget cap – one of the sport's newest and most complex set of regulations – in a new interview, he used it as an example to express his belief that those smaller teams on the grid have too much power.
"One could argue the little teams have too great a voice on implementing a significant rule that can effect the top teams, with things that that quite simply don't affect them," he told RacingNews365. "Particularly through the budget cap, I think that's where the FIA and the promoter really need to look at."
Horner went on to point out that there are several ways in which, in his opinion, the budget cap rules need to be changed. "Just as a simplistic argument, technology partnerships and F1 have always been been hugely important," he added.
"But when certain technology comes into a budget cap from say, for example, a computer sponsor who wants to give you a new laptop, you might not need the new laptop, but the sponsor wants it to showcase their product. However when that product then comes under the budget cap and you have to turn it down that's when there's areas that we can improve so as not to dissuade technology companies coming into into F1."
Red Bull were the only team to exceed the cap in its first year, the 2021 season. They were slapped with a large fine and had 10% of their aerodynamic testing time over the next 12 months taken away from them as a result, though the FIA said there was "no evidence they sought at any time to act in bad faith".
At the time Horner said the fact the rules were new contributed to that situation as there were – and still are – some grey areas. He expects the budget cap regulations to become more clear over time, as it often the case when any new legislation comes into force in F1.
He continued: "I think it's a very, very complicated set of regulations. And of course, they will evolve. What I would like to see is less pressure beyond the cap moving forward. Your biggest drivers of costs are the technical and the sporting regs. If we put more emphasis into what those costs and how those costs are driven, by those regulations, it will in turn put less stress on the cap."
