Here is the thing: Formula 1's much-touted cost cap was supposed to bring the field together, but the numbers tell a wild and brutal story. As The Race reports, Williams team principal James Vowles has laid bare the historical data proving that the championship's heavyweights—Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren—are pulling further away than ever before, leaving the rest of the grid trapped.
Vowles points out that across the ten seasons before the financial regulations came into force, from 2011 to 2020, the big four scooped up 77% of the available points. But across the five seasons since the cost cap was introduced, that figure has jumped to 83%. Speaking at the Singapore Grand Prix, the Williams boss doubled down on his assessment of the grid, stating that the field simply isn't compressing.
The stats get even starkest when looking at the podiums and the winners' circle. Vowles highlights that there has been only one grand prix win belonging to a team outside of the big four in the last 130 races. Furthermore, before the cost cap arrived, non-big-four squads secured a podium 10% of the time. Now? That number has plummeted straight down to 5%.
When checking the records independently, the math largely holds its ground. Across the five completed cost-cap seasons from 2021 to 2025, the big four grabbed 83.5% of the points, a share that edges up to 84.1% when including the ongoing 2026 campaign, where they have hobbled up 87.7% of the points. While McLaren's struggles during the 2010s dragged down the pre-cap averages and complicated a direct comparison of the group's isolation, the underlying reality remains entirely intact: the anticipated catch-up effect is nowhere to be found.
Breaking down the championship classification reveals just how rigid this hierarchy has become. Over the past 10 seasons, including the current campaign, only four slots out of 40 in the top four have fallen to teams outside of that exclusive quartet. Occasional interlopers like Alpine, Lotus, Renault, Racing Point, Force India, Aston Martin, and Williams have poked their heads in, but none ever transformed into consistent multi-season threats.
The last time a team outside of the big four finished in the top three of the championship was Williams way back in 2015, having also done so the year prior. With non-big-four podium finishes dropping from 10.5% in the decade before the cap down to 5.4% since, Vowles is using this stark evidence to propose a catch-up system ideally for implementation by 2027.
