Zak Brown Calls for More Technical Freedom in Car Design Under Formula 1 Cost Cap Era

Zak Brown has called for the technical regulations in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship to be less regulated now that the sport is being run under a cost cap.

The CEO of the McLaren F1 team believes the current regulations are too restrictive, and with a budget cap in place, it would be better to allow certain areas of development to be opened up so some cars could look different to the others.

Brown has called for the FIA to allow more technical freedom within Formula 1, with the American insisting designers will need to be clever to deliver different designs within the cost cap limitations.

“I think we are over-regulated while under the cost cap,” Brown is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “If you’ve got the cost cap, I’d almost go the other way: which is: do what you want. If you want to have six wheels, have six wheels. But this is how much you have to spend.

“I don’t know why the regulations have to be as tight as they are. I think if you’ve got a cost cap, then there should actually be some more technical freedom within the cost cap as you are governed.

“I think then you’d see more innovation and more risk-taking. The cars would look even more different.

“At the moment you’ve got two governances: everything has to look exactly like that, and you cannot spend more than that. Just stop the spend and do what you want.”

Brown is conscious that the regulations are in place to try and improve racing, and he would not want to see designs that would go against this idea. He therefore acknowledges that opening up the regulations to allow different designs would be a risk.

“I think it would bring out more innovation,” Brown said. “And I think everyone would learn from each other.

“It was like when Brawn did the double diffuser [in 2009]. They got a great head start but, by the end of the year, it was balanced out. So I think you could get that.

“I also think that’s a fascinating part of the sport. But that would be the risk.”