source
After the last couple of races Red Bull have been put on the backfoot in more ways than just the obvious. Lost points is money thrown away and considering every championship point is worth around $1 million dollars this is big money. Verstappen would have scored points at Silverstone and far more in Hungary if he hadn't been crashed into. The loss of spend from the budget cap is important but so would the money earned by Championship points. One could argue that Red Bull have lost over $30 million just in the last two races from possible Championship points alone.
A new proposal has been raised where if a driver is at fault for causing an accident then his team are responsible for the costs incurred repairing the car. In the past teams wouldn't have thought or even considered such a drastic idea but the cost caps are that tight.
I we consider teams have $145 million to play with plus an extra $1.2 million per race over 21 races (23 this season). In the past teams would comfortably spend double or triple that in one season and have to now start looking at the costs with a precise spend in mind.
In the last two races we have seen Red Bull lose two engines and Ferrari lost one and this was due to no fault of their own. Other drivers caused the damage and teams are starting to feel that others should be paying for the damages incurred. No one does this on purpose but the consequences if this is approved could change how teams employ certain drivers as some are more accident prone than others.
Bottas ramming the back end of Lando Norris causing total chaos taking out 5 cars at the first corner could in the future be a very costly error. Can you imagine Mercedes footing the bill for this as it would run into many millions and would have a huge impact on their yearly budget.
Teams in the past have sold seats to drivers who were obviously not up to the standards required and possibly with this new idea would be wiser for teams to give those a wide berth. There are only 10 teams on the grid and this idea has the backing of 3 teams already which is a decent percentage and is nearly halfway to making the proposal a real possibility.
I can see why certain teams would be reluctant as reducing a certain teams budget by bad luck and misfortune could in fact favor the smaller teams who are fighting for every point for survival. It is tough luck that both Red Bull cars plus the Ferrari will have a 10 grid penalty to face at some point later in the season as they move onto their 4th engine. The current rules stipulate that 3 engines is the maximum allocation allowed for the season and thereafter grid penalties will be incurred.
Fortunately Red Bull have a fast enough car to glide through the field but would like a hefty Championship lead before they consider this as giving Mercedes a huge head start when behind them on the table is not ideal. This could be decisive in the championship battle as it looks as though it will be very tight at the end.