The FIA has introduced a cost cap offset in Formula 1’s 2026 financial regulations, due to the Sauber team’s higher salaries in Switzerland.

Sauber, to become the works Audi team in 2026, has long argued its staff costs are a big disadvantage as it fights to become competitive due to the much higher wages and cost of living in Switzerland compared to its rival teams in the UK and Italy.

It therefore pushed for the new regulations to include an offset for teams operating in countries with higher salary levels than the UK or Italy.

According to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the average wage in Switzerland in 2022 was $80,000 compared to $54,000 in the UK, where most other teams are based. That means, since the introduction of the cost cap, the Hinwil-based team has dealt with significantly less headroom to spend resources on performance and car development.

The FIA has now agreed that Sauber’s situation is not fair and will work on a cost cap offset from 2026 based on OECD salary data, which has been incorporated in the latest version of the financial regulations. 

Speaking to Nikolas Tombazis, single-seater director for the FIA, he confirmed that Sauber’s situation led to a regulatory rethink for 2026.

“It is our responsibility to be fair,” Tombazis said at Austin’s US Grand Prix. “It became obvious to us that salaries in certain countries are much, much higher and cost of life is much higher in certain countries.

Nikolas Tombazis, Head of Single Seater Technical Matters, FIA

Photo by: Mark Sutton

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“I see it myself, I live in Geneva. Whenever I go to the supermarket I think about it. And we felt that a team based in a high labour cost country like Switzerland would end up having approximately 30% or even 40% fewer people working on the car, which we felt was fundamentally unfair.

“We’ve decided that this could either lead to us trying to take some protections from a regulatory point, or it would eventually mean that teams could not operate, and a team like Sauber would have to basically close and move to another country, which we don’t think is the right way for the world championship to operate.

“So, that’s why there’s an adjustment in the financial regulations for 2026 which will basically adjust the salaries that get considered in the cost cap by some factors that get determined by OECD data, data that’s available to the world. As we get data from teams, we know that this OECD data is very consistent with the salary differences that exist within Formula 1 context and amongst the engineers of teams. So it’s not just OECD data.”

For 2026, the F1 cost cap has been raised from $135m to $215m after including a whole raft of new items under the financial regulations.

Rather than a large net increase in the amount F1 teams will be spending, the new figure will now include several items that were previously exempted. The higher figure also takes into account inflation adjustments, as well as changes to the $USD exchange rate.

The additional $300,000 allowance for each sprint race is an item now included in the base figure, while the $1.8m allowance for any race over the ceiling of 21 has been raised to 24 Grand Prix per season.

Finally, teams can also no longer write off certain R&D costs made under the UK research and development expenditure credit scheme.

The FIA says the matter surrounding Red Bull’s front bib adjuster is now closed in its opinion, as it rules out a wider investigation.

Motor racing’s governing body has acted for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in adding seals to the Red Bull car to ensure that an adjustment device in the RB20 cockpit that can raise or lower the front bib cannot be used outside the regulations.

That came following suspicions from rival teams that Red Bull could have been altering its ride height under parc ferme conditions – which would be illegal.

However, having conducted a thorough examination of the Red Bull system over the Austin weekend, the FIA says it is satisfied that the measures it has in place mean there can be no rule breach.

And while the governing body admits that it is impossible to be sure that Red Bull never used the device illegally in the past, it does not think it practical to dig any deeper into the matter.

The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis said: “I mean, honestly, can I say with complete certainty about whether there’s ever been anything irregular? No. Can I say that the matter is closed? Yes, absolutely.”

Nikolas Tombazis, Head of Single Seater Technical Matters, FIA

Photo by: Mark Sutton

While McLaren has called on the FIA to investigate further whether Red Bull did use the device in the past, Tombazis said that there was no realistic way to find answers as to what happened historically. And the federation sees no reason to launch any further action simply based on suspicion from competitors.

“To go and retroactively actually prove exactly what has happened before is difficult, and we don’t think we have the ability to go and investigate two years’ worth of situation,” he said.

“Generally, when we decide to escalate the matter, and to go to the stewards or tribunal or whatever, we want to have some reasonable indication – so not based on hearsay or just speculation.

“As the design is not illegal, we believe that the correct action is to say: ‘Well, okay, certain things need to happen in order to guarantee there’s no ongoing sort of concern.’ But we also have to also draw a line in time and say that there are certain things we can’t go into much more detail [with].”

Tombazis said it was not realistic to think that analysis of garage CCTV images that the FIA captures from each weekend would yield any evidence of the team altering the device.

“People are allowed to check things on the car, and it’s a matter of how easy that is,” he said.

“If you have to dismount the whole bodywork and do 50 things, then obviously it would be visible in the camera. But on something as simple and as quick as that, I don’t think you can realistically check that on cameras or virtual images or so on.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, talk in the garage as mechanics work on the car of Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

While some senior paddock figures have suggested that the FIA should formally speak to Red Bull staff, or seek potential whistleblowers, to be totally sure it was never used in the past, Tombazis does not see that as a route worth pursuing.

 “We need to always consider that we’re dealing with humans,” he said. “We’re dealing with humans changing conditions: with loyalties – old loyalties, and new loyalties. So, one has to be a bit careful about how you escalate that.

“We also don’t want to be fitting lie detectors on people and doing interrogations under bright lights, or something like that. That is not what we want to do here.

“I’ve obviously worked in the past in teams, quite a lot, and I’ve employed people from other teams. I think there’s sometimes a tendency to say, well, where I came from, we were doing XYZ.

“And sometimes one has to really interpret these comments very, very carefully. You cannot just base an escalation on a few comments like that.”

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Giacomo Altoe grabbed the best time in the Trofeo Pirelli Qualifying – Trofeo Pirelli AM right at the very end of the session, stopping the clock at 1m52.009s.

The Emil Frey Racing team driver outwitted Luca Ludwig (Mertel Motorsport) by just 95 thousandths of a second, on his final run. The two Italians put on quite a show in Qualifying, exchanging first place several times and leaving quite a gap behind them.

Next up, Dylan Medler – the first driver from the Ferrari Challenge North America – was the best of the rest, but he was more than a second away from the benchmark.

Bence Valint, Luigi Coluccio and Philipp Baron completed the top-6 ranking of those who qualified for this afternoon’s Superpole in the Trofeo Pirelli category, while Hendrik Viol was quickest in Trofeo Pirelli AM.

The Scuderia Praha driver stopped the clock at 1m53.512s, preceding Marco Zanasi by 7 tenths and Claus Zibrandtsen by a clear second. Danilo Del Favero, Andrew Morrow and Axel Sartingen completed the Top 6 in the category.

With thirteen minutes remaining before the end of Qualifying, Akhobadze remained stationary on the track, forcing Race Direction to display the red flag to allow the track marshals to move the vehicle.

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Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier will take a slender lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tanak as 14s separated the top three heading into the final four stages of the Central European Rally.

The eight-time world champion won two of the three afternoon asphalt stages to extend his advantage over Tanak to 5.2s, with Toyota’s Elfyn Evans in third and 14s back.

Ogier’s performance earned the Frenchman 18 provisional championship points to boost Toyota’s manufacturers’ title hopes, while Tanak picked up 15 points and Evans claimed 13.

Championship leader Thierry Neuville ended the day in fourth, 39.8s back on the overall lead, to claim 10 provisional championship points, after two errors in the morning’s stage 11 cost him half a minute and the rally lead.

It proved to be a setback for the Belgian, who can seal a maiden world title if he can outscore Tanak by two points.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, team-mate Sami Pajari and M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster rounded out the top seven. M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux retired from the day’s action after damaging the rear of his Ford Puma in stage 10.

Neuville’s demise in the morning put attention firmly on the fight for the rally lead between Ogier, Tanak and Evans as the trio had been separated by 8.1s.

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

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The afternoon’s first stage, a second pass through Granit und Wald (20.05km), went the way of Tanak as the Hyundai driver repeated the stage win from the morning pass.

The stage was mostly dry, unlike the morning, but there were still a few “sketchy” damp patches according to Tanak. The 2019 world champion’s effort was 3.4s faster than rally leader Ogier’s, which reduced the Toyota driver’s lead to a mere 1.1s.

Evans also pushed hard on the dirty road, matching Ogier’s time to remain poised in third overall.

Resigned to the fact that the gap to lead group was too large to claw back, Neuville delivered a steady run to clock the fourth-fastest time ahead of Katsuta, Pajari, Mikkelsen and Munster.

Katsuta did have 16 seconds added to his overall time after he was found to have exceeded the speed limit by 8km/h through the virtual chicane in the morning pass through the test.

Ogier responded to Tanak’s push in stage 13 (Beyond Borders, 24.33km) by winning the test and crucially taking three seconds out of his Hyundai rival. The road was much drier compared to the morning pass.

“We had to react, Ott was fast in the previous, we had to be fast on this. It is a drier road, so we have to be better on it,” said Ogier.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

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Neuville was Ogier’s nearest rival on the stage, 0.9s adrift, as the WRC points leader focused on bringing the car home, as both Tanak and Evans dropped time to Ogier.

“In the dry conditions, a lot of markings have improved, I had a bit of hesitation in there. I should learn to ignore what my old man [father, Gwyndaf Evans] says sometimes!” Evans said. “He’s doing my gravel notes, you have to take everything with a pinch of salt but it’s not always that easy to do.”

Ogier managed to pull further clear of Tanak on the final stage of the day after eclipsing the Hyundai driver’s time by 1.1s, with Evans two seconds adrift of the pace to set up an intriguing three-way fight for the victory on Sunday.

In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin opened up a 1m50.8s lead over Filip Mares, while Yohan Rossel’s championship hopes are all but over after a mistake in the morning left him 11th in class and 15m40.7s in arrears.

The rally will conclude after four Sunday stages comprising of 54.04km.