Monday 11 May 2026 7:00 am | Updated: Sunday 10 May 2026 8:43 pm
Cadillac F1, the US-owned team that joined the Formula 1 grid this year, has had to address a phone-related issue to comply with the FIA's cost cap protocol. The team, which has yet to score a point in its first four races, faced a GDPR headache after failing to issue company phones to staff, as required by the sport's financial regulations.
FIA's Broad Powers
Formula 1's cost cap rules grant the FIA extensive investigative powers, including the ability to inspect team staff's phones to uncover any undeclared projects. Cadillac's chief legal officer, Caroline McGrory, revealed at the Sport Resolutions conference last week that the team initially allowed employees to use personal phones, leading to data protection concerns.
“The FIA have really broad powers – they can look at everyone’s computers, phones. We’ve recently had a few issues,” McGrory said. “We hadn’t given out company phones, so everybody was using their own mobile phone. Now we really have to do that [give out phones], because you end up with data protection issues if you’re asking employees to hand over their personal phones to see what their WhatsApps say.”
Training and Compliance
McGrory emphasized that the situation has fostered a culture of compliance within the team. “It’s created a mentality that everybody gets trained in the financial regs. So everybody across the whole team has to understand the basics. They live and breathe it on a daily basis,” she added.
Sources close to Cadillac confirmed that relevant staff were quickly issued with company phones, and the team has fully complied with both disclosure protocols and data protection legislation. The sources noted that issuing company phones was always part of the plan, and the issue was more about data protection than cost cap compliance. Cadillac declined to comment publicly.
Effectiveness of Cost Cap Rules
McGrory also praised the FIA's cost cap rules, which have made teams profitable for the first time and driven their valuations into the billions. “It’s really closely scrutinised and monitored, and that’s, I think, where the success has been,” she said. “Historically, the sport tried to implement a resource restriction agreement, but it was monitored by the teams themselves, and there were no real penalties. And so it didn’t really work.”
She outlined the rigorous process: “The teams have to submit interim reports in June each year, and at the end of the year they’ll submit really detailed information that will have been accumulated throughout the year. Then it’s really closely audited. The FIA will come in with groups of their finance team, and we’ll go through all the detail. They’ll ask people, do spot checks on things throughout the whole team. There are really broad powers.”
Cadillac's swift action to issue company phones demonstrates the team's commitment to adhering to F1's financial regulations, ensuring both compliance and data protection for its staff.
