Budget Cap in F1 from 2015

A budget cap will be introduced in Formula 1 from the start of 2015.

The move was agreed at a meeting of the F1 Strategy Group and the F1 Commission in Paris today.

A working group will be established to finalise the regulations governing the cost-cap regulations.

This group, which will include representatives of the FIA and of the commercial rights holder, as well as F1 team members, will be tasked to finalise these regulations by the end of June 2014.

It is not clear how the budget cap will be structured, although previous proposals have included exemptions for marketing and driver wages.

A budget cap has been under discussion in F1 on and off for several years and with the majority of teams struggling financially the need to take action to cut costs has become urgent.

It's not clear how the budget cap will be structured   

This will be another long drawn out saga by the teams

Remember what happened the last time they tried to do this?

All kinds of shenanigans about what counted as development work and in-season testing. Investigations revealed the teams had some ingenious ways of shuffling money around to avoid the restrictions.

Ferrari even spat their dummy out and threatened to quit if they had to work under a budget cap.

Situations was made even more laughable by the fact the FIA had no effective means of monitoring teams' expenditure, or even of enforcing any penalties.

Wonder if it will be any different this time? Will any lessons have been learnt? Will the teams be more willing to play ball now?