One cap fits all

The FIA today announced its plans to introduce an F1 GP budget cap. From 2010, all teams will be encouraged to operate within the £40 million cap, although this limit will exclude driver salaries, engine costs, fines, marketing and hospitality. For teams that comply with the cap, they will be given greater technical freedom and be entitled to unlimited out-of-season testing. It seems though that teams will nevertheless be entitled to ignore the cap and carry on as normal. Does the cap therefore constitute a great leap forward? Or is it, at best, simply a compromise; at worst, a 'fudge'? And how will teams seek to benefit from the advantages that cap compliance will bring, while actually using by-pass strategies to minimise its effects? For instance, might a team be able to run a modest car but pay huge sums of money for the best drivers and the best engine? There are also other issues: to what extent is the cap a reflection of the various global pressures and constraints the FIA faces? Would any other approach to capping have attracted the attention of the EU whenever the F1 series arrived in Europe? Is the cap going to change the balance of competition or simply intensify it, moving competition off into different directions? And how will teams like Ferrari respond when the team is currently spending hundreds of millions of pounds? Will such teams reduce spending or simply spend the same amount of money (or more) in different ways?