Though the sport finally saw sense and introduced a budget cap, the FIA's Single Seater Director, Nikolas Tombazis admits that it has its downside.

The drive to introduce a cap on spending almost broke the sport under Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley's leadership, but in all honesty it is one of the few things Liberty Media has done that was needed and appears to work.

If nothing else it has ended the sort of spending wars we've seen in the past and which we could have seen again what with Mercedes need to catch up with Red Bull.

While some teams are still operating below the cap, which falls to $130m next season, this year, despite the cap's obvious constraints, McLaren proved that things can be turned around.

Nonetheless, Tombazis admits that the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes are still finding it hard to deal with.

"The problem with the financial regulations is, on the one hand, they do mean that somebody can't spend three times more than somebody else, which is good," he said, according to Autosport. "But on the other hand, they do also mean that if you're behind somebody, you can't just throw everything at it and make an upgrade.

"In older times, some teams would occasionally start a season and be in a really quite bad place, because they would have maybe messed up the project or concept or whatever," he continued. "They arrive and are humiliated for the first few races.

"I've been involved in such a situation, but then you just make a massive upgrade package for Barcelona or Canada or something, and you'd virtually redesign the whole car like crazy for three or four months and then be winning races during the season.

"However, the current financial regulations limit the amount of upgrades you can do. So, if somebody is further back, the recovery can be quite long and painful."

Like McLaren, but without anything like the same kind of results, AlphaTauri was able to turn its season around in the latter stages, however the limitations of the cap mean that others were force to choose between updating their current car or looking ahead to 2024.

As a result there is a growing demand for a relaxation of the technical regulations. However, Tombazis fears that this would have the opposite effect.

"There is a fine line between too much limitation, and clearly this is a technological sport, and has to remain so," he said. "But on that side, with too much freedom, there is then potentially very big gaps between the cars, and that's a very difficult line to follow.

"Clearly, if you ask an engineer from a team they will say it's too much limitation. I'm an engineer myself, I would love it if all cars were a complete technological battle. But we do need to consider that other factors at play are important for the sport.

"Additionally, compared to the older days, when maybe there was a bit more freedom, we have financial regulations and we have to also try to limit some of the activities that take place.

"Otherwise, you could have teams building some advantage through an R&D project of some sort, and then having an advantage for a long, long time to come, with no chance of other teams catching up with restrictive regulations.

"So, there's this line between freedom and having a competitive championship, plus the financial regulations put us in a very small spot. So, I don't think there's a perfect answer."