It’s the talk of the Formula One community: who has breached the Cost Cap? Who hasn’t breached the Cost Cap? What do we do about those who have breached the Cost Cap?

For those who have been living under a rock this weekend, there has been a great deal of speculation about the Cost Cap as the certificates of compliance for the 2021 cap are issued on the 5th October and there are heavy rumours two teams have spent too much (no names mentioned).

The levels of breach are categorised into minor (less than 5%) or material (more than 5%) and have penalties ranging from fines, to points deductions, to reduced aerodynamic testing to exclusion from the championship.

Now the main topic of conversation is how far these penalties should go and whether they should be retrospectively applied to the season that may or may not influence the controversial championship result.

For me, the team must have known as they progressed through the season they were overspending and they must have known that they would be caught at some point therefore they should be punished.

It isn’t an accident that you overspend by €7 million, there should have been conscious decisions within the potential overspending teams about what they were doing so it can be rectified so the teams stay under.

Spending too much in F1 should be considered just as harshly as any technical or sporting infringement. For every pound, euro or dollar overspent it is an unfair advantage over the competition that should be punished.

How do you think the potential breaches should be punished?

Do comment your thoughts below.