Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, has declined a request from Williams for relief on the sport's strict budget cap rules.
The team, led by James Vowles, has been grappling with an unusual string of high-cost accidents, depleting its stock of spare parts and threatening its ability to stay under the budget cap for 2024.
"Williams quite simply had more than twice as much damage as the others," former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde said on the DRS De Race Show podcast.
Vowles admitted that the situation is having a wider impact on the team's development plans, saying: "It's a distraction away from '25, there's no doubt about it."
The financial toll of the crashes is staggering. Three major accidents at Interlagos alone cost the team over $5 million, while Franco Colapinto's crash in Las Vegas added another $2 million to the total.
To remain within the cap, teams can 'borrow' from their 2025 budget allocation, but the borrowed amount must then be doubled and accounted for in future budgets.
"It will be very, very difficult," Vowles said when asked if Williams can adhere to the 2024 cap. "It's hard to save as much as we need to somewhere else in the budget until the end of December."
According to Auto Motor und Sport, Vowles proposed a dispensation to the FIA for teams experiencing more than ten major crashes in a season, requesting an additional $1 million allowance. However, the FIA rejected the idea.
Williams now faces the tough task of balancing its books while managing the significant financial impact of its 2024 season crashes.
