The FIA has revealed two engine manufacturers have entered into accepted breach agreements over the 2023 Financial Regulations. The FIA’s Cost Cap Administration (CCA) has revealed the results of its first examination into the six F1 power unit manufacturers registered to supply engines from the F1 2026 season onward. Honda and Alpine fall foul of F1 cost cap rulesThe first-ever review of the power unit manufacturers, carried out under the F1 Power Unit Financial Regulations, has seen two power unit manufacturers found in breach of the regulations for 2023.

Honda Racing Corporation (Honda) and Alpine Racing SAS (Alpine) have been named as entering into an accepted breach agreement (ABA) with the FIA over the matters, with the breaches merely procedural – neither Honda nor Alpine were in breach of the cost cap imposed upon the manufacturers. Honda currently supplies the two Red Bull F1 teams – Red Bull Racing and VCARB – while Alpine supplies its own factory team, with no additional customers. The Power Unit Financial Regulations, which came into effect on January 1st, 2023, impose a cost cap on spending by the power unit manufacturers, with the limit currently set at $95 million.

The limit increases to $130 million for F1 2026 and beyond, with a new engine formula coming into effect. The power unit manufacturers are thus bound to their own separate cost cap regulations, with the F1 teams also subject to annual auditing by the Cost Cap Administration to check compliance with the F1 Financial Regulations. The offers of an ABA to resolve the issues were accepted by both Honda and Alpine, with the FIA’s CCA emphasising that both acted cooperatively and “in good faith”, sought to provide additional information and evidence when requested, and that there is no accusation nor evidence that either Alpine or Honda “sought or obtained any undue advantage” from the breach.

The ABAs for both Honda and Alpine said: “2023 is the first year of application of the Power Unit Financial Regulations, which are a complex set of rules that the Power Unit Manufacturers were required to adapt to. ”The ABA with Honda came into effect on the October 7 2024, and with Alpine on the October 11 2024. With the ABA offers accepted by the two power unit manufacturers, the CCA’s findings are no longer open to appeal.

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Honda was offered an ABA by the FIA’s Cost Cap Administration after being found that its procedural breach was of “limited nature”, and because Honda was willing to accept its errors. The breaches pertain to a failure to file accurate reporting documentation for the 2023 reporting period as the documentation submitted included incorrect excluded and/or adjusted costs regarding dyno maintenance and the costs of inventories. With Honda accepting the procedural breach, it must pay a financial penalty of $600,000 to the FIA within 30 days, while also paying the costs incurred by the CCA in connection with preparation of the breach agreement.

What are the terms of Alpine’s breach agreement (ABA) with the FIA? Alpine’s power unit department was also offered an ABA by the CCA after being found to have submitted required documentation on April 2nd, 2024, containing “significant deficiencies”. The FIA states that “several required procedures” had not been completed “at all”, while several other procedures had only been “partially completed”.

Updated documentation was duly submitted on May 6 2024, with the revised assessment report addressing all of the deficiencies. Having breached the Power Unit Financial Regulations by delaying the CCA in carrying out its functions as well as submitting inaccurate documentation through the omission of relevant information, Alpine accepted its ABA and must pay the FIA $400,000 and associated costs relevant to the ABA’s preparation. Read Next: Max Verstappen ‘sacrificing himself’ to beat Lando Norris as ‘not fair racing’ claim made