Aston Martin have admitted a procedural breach of Formula 1 cost cap rules from the 2024 season. The Silverstone-based outfit did not overspend but an error in the filing process when submitting their self-assessment to the FIA, and is one of two teams whose submissions have required extra scrutiny from the FIA.

Since 2021, teams have been limited in terms of how much they can spend on their operations every year, with some costs excluded such as driver salaries and marketing expenditure. For the 2024 season, the cap ended up being set at around £124million.

All teams were required to submit their self-assessments for the 2024 season by March 31 this year. But while the FIA issued compliance certificates to all 10 teams in September of each of the last two years, we are now approaching the end of October and there has been no such announcement from the governing body. That delay led to speculation over potential breaches and now it as emerged that two teams may have broken the rules.

One of them, Aston Martin, have accepted that they committed a minor procedural breach of the cost cap regulations. The team did not overspend, but a missing signature from an auditor on a document was not provided by that March 31 deadline and so, per the rules, the FIA considers the matter to be a breach.

Aston Martin has entered an Accepted Breach Agreement (ABA) with the FIA which will see the team pay a minor fine. But a potentially far more substantion punishment could lie in wait for another unnamed team which has been accused of – and is said to deny – overspending in 2024.

To date, the only team found to have overspent in a season was Red Bull, in the first year the cost cap rules were enforced. The Milton Keynes-based outfit went over the cap by 1.6 percent – a ‘minor’ breach as per the regulations – and eventually agreed a sporting penalty with the FIA which saw them pay a £6million fine and give up 10 percent of their wind tunnel testing time over a 12-month period.

It is that alleged overspend which has caused the delay to the FIA’s announcement over the 2024 cost cap filings, with the governing body preferring to announce the fates of all 10 teams at the same time. The team accused of going over the cost cap limit is said to be challenging the breach they have been accused of.

An FIA spokesperson said: “The FIA’s Cost Cap Administration is in the process of finalising the review of the 2024 submissions from teams and power unit manufacturers, the result of which is expected to be communicated shortly.

“The FIA does not comment on individual submissions made by specific teams and/or power unit manufacturers and, as per established practice, the results of the review will be made public once assessment of all submissions are completed and finalised.”