[netamargr]

The point about capping budgets - if such a thing were reliably possible in F1 - is that currently, without such caps, when the FIA restricts one area to 'cut costs' the teams spend the money saved on other areas to compensate. With the cap, you know what you have to spend on your entire outfit for the season, so you make better use of it.

A good example was the way Renault approached the testing cap a while back. They became much more efficient at testing, and it served them well. But everyone else has since caught on and the field levels in that area.