Red Bull Respond To FIA Statement Finding Them Guilty Of Breaching Cost Cap – WTF1
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Red Bull Respond To FIA Statement Finding Them Guilty Of Breaching Cost Cap

Red Bull Racing have now responded to the FIA’s statement, which confirmed they’d breached the 2021 F1 cost cap. The findings by F1’s governing body state that the team has both Procedural and Minor Overspend Breaches.

Although there are no details yet of what the penalty for the offence is, as this is new ground for the championship, Red Bull have been quick to release a statement saying they’re surprised and disappointed by the findings.

The team joined F1 in 2005 and has had great success, most recently taking Max Verstappen to his second world championship. The first of those championships for Verstappen occurred last season, another reason this result is BIG news.

Rumours of this breach have been circulating for the past two weeks, with the FIA now sharing that Red Bull have had a “minor” overspend which is up to 5% of the limit – an estimated cost of around $7.25million at the most.

Aston Martin also has a Procedural Breach in the FIA findings.

The next questions are which penalties will be applied to the team, and HOW this information was leaked in the first place!

What do you think the penalty should be?

32 thoughts on “Red Bull Respond To FIA Statement Finding Them Guilty Of Breaching Cost Cap

  • Feetu Nyrhinen says:

    The penalty will be like a Stop and go penalty in the first winter testing session. It should be a penalty fee of ten times the overspent sum of money and a prohibition for testing, because the FIA won’t change the results afterwards.

    • Steven Bremer says:

      I agree that it should be tied to money. The team should have to pay the overage plus a percentage. 10x is a bit much though.

    • Jetson Flyers says:

      A monetary penalty is the worst idea. It directly counters the reason for the cap in the first place. MLB has this system and it is essentially a luxury tax. Top teams frequently break it because they are rich enough to pay the price.

  • If an athlete is caught in dopping they will be disqualified and lose their achievments and possibly being suspended to participate in events for a set period of time. Overspending in F1 is akin to dopping, even if it’s minor breach, the punishment must be hard because it’s a rule that cannot be breached. That said, the only hard punishment for F1 is points deduction.

    • So based on your theory if a team is caught cheating they should be disqualified from the entire standings, Lewis had an illegal wing last season also, so does rb and Mercedes get suspended and Carlos is our new 2021 champ?

      • Lewis was disqualified for having an illigal wing in Brazil. Otherwise I dont know which other wing you are talking about.

    • Jeffery Males says:

      I’m actually a Williams Supporter, But I believe that it was Red Bull, & not Verstappen that did wrong. Yes Red Bull could/should lose thier Championship points, for last year, (2021), but Max shouldn’t lose either championship 2021/2022, because of the Team’s error.

    • If an athlete is caught doping, there is a specific process where a B sample is also tested. If both are found to be in violation, the athlete is notified. And has the right to appeal.

      What I’ve never seen is a competitor (Wolff) who says he has information on the violation. There is a process here. It needs to run its course, and then penalties can be applied.

      To say right now that RB is 100% guilty and should immediately given an extremely huge penalty for the first time they’ve ever applied this systems is quite extreme. I’m sure every team was working different angles to maximize their money. Just like the technical regulations are open to interpretation, no doubt the financial regulations are as well.

      Let’s see the data from both sides, then make a decision.

  • Why not remove the same percentage of points? 4% overspend means 4% of points deducted… seems fair to me.

    • Jason Malcolm says:

      Do you mean on last season or this?
      Drivers or constructors or both?
      Only one championship from both years would be affected by this kind of proposal and that’s the drivers last year.
      4% deduction 2022 constructors would be 24/25 points this season which is absolutely irrelevant when RB have 165 point lead in the constructors.
      14/15 points if it goes against Max & Sergio in the drivers. Max would still have 100 point lead over Charles & Perez would only drop to 3rd but still only 13/14 points behind Charles in second.

      If it’s 2021 then Red Bull would get a points deduction of 23-24 points in the constructors which would have no impact at all on standings.

      Then the one it would make a difference the drivers.
      Max would take a 14/15 point deduction dropping him to second place.

      Lewis 8 time world champion 11 months after the season finishes. Max has driven a season with the no 1 on his car and then having the title taken away.
      Not a chance that’s happening.
      Where’s the punishment? This would make F1 an absolute joke.

      The FIA are likely going to spend months trying to figure out what to do with this as if they go too soft the budget cap is out the window and if they go heavy handed they could lose 2 or 4 cars when the concord agreement ends (I assume no matter how dissatisfied with the punishment RB are they can’t leave the sport without huge financial penalties while the concord agreement is in place)

      The punishment has to be on the team and they’re development or further reduce there budget cap.
      If they’ve went over by 4% then each season until the next reg change in 2026 they have a 4% to there budget compared to everyone else. This would be a huge hurdle and challenge for them to navigate and would absolutely deter any other teams doing it.
      Bear in mind 4% is $5.8m of last years budget which would be a huge deficit to lose from future seasons budgets.

      • I think the rule changes this year make it unnecessary to punish them this year. The fact is that RB interpreted the rules best this year in the same way that Mercedes did last big rule change. And Max has driven brilliantly and shown what a great driver he is. Bu last year he won through RB cheating and influence in Massi. I think last year’s driver’s championship should be taken away from him and given to Lewis who truly deserved. it.

        • Jason Malcolm says:

          I see what you mean and mostly agree I just feel it’s too far past to change last season results.
          The other issue is that whilst they have absolutely smashed this seasons regulations they were developing this car last season also.
          Just because they went over last seasons budget cap doesn’t mean that money was being put into last seasons car. They in all likelihood put a large chunk of the budget toward this seasons development and it’s paid off for them.
          This is why I think it has to be a punishment going forward rather than retrospective.
          I don’t mean to take anything away from Max he has been untouchable this season and has shown just how much he has matured over the winter break with his demeanor (I do feel old ways would reappear if he wasn’t winning though)

          • I agree, but a punishment needs to be seen to be done and of course every other team used budget for last year and this… I just think the FIA in the shape of Massi screwed up, the punishment I’m suggesting would serve justice and correct a major wrong whilst a financial slap on the wrist would just be laughed off!

          • Jason Malcolm says:

            Absolutely, it would be a very just punishment & I suppose it would put anyone off as it cost them a drivers championship.
            I just think if they get no punishment going forward when that could well of been a huge factor in them being so comfortable this season and likely future seasons with the advantage I assume they’ll carry.

          • Jason Malcolm says:

            More than likely it will be a financial slap on the wrist as you say and it will be infuriating for all F1 fans apart from the absoltely die hardest of RB fans who think they can do no wrong.

        • David Kershaw says:

          When did RB cheat last year? The problem with these accusations is they are baseless because no one actually knows yet – and if you’re game to make these insinuations on social media be prepared to back them also in court if they choose to sue you – as some companies do when it comes to social media

  • Mathew Vickers says:

    I feel like it should not affect last year. I think it should affect this year. Deduction of constructor points and less windtunnel/crd time. I don’t think it should affect the drivers.

  • The FIA have to punish the overage. They have painted themselves into a corner. If they hit hard and take points from 2021 & maybe even 22, then RedBull will probably pack up and leave the sport, removing 4 cars from the grid, and FIA/FOM and Liberty does not want that…. If they slap their wrists, then the other teams will overspend and the budget cap will mean nothing.

  • Point deduction is the only way to go otherwise the cost cap rule has got no ‘teeth’ (as Brawn put it), but since nobody wants to stir **** up, they’ll do it in a way that doesn’t affect last year’s championship.

  • I would disqualify Red Bull from the 2021 and 2022 championships, drivers and constructors. Realistically that isn’t going to happen which sums up Formula 1. far too many rules that are over complex and unenforceable. Also detrimental to the “sport”. We assume that Merc have met the cost cap and that has meant they couldn’t develop themselves out of a major problem this year so as soon as their car hit the track the season was lost. That isn’t the way it should be. Better when the major manufacturers and therefore the big money simply wasn’t there.

  • justin herrmann says:

    Every $100k overspent should result in a 1 point deduction in each of the current and following years, for the constructor championship only. This would mean that if RB overspent by $4M then there would be a penalty of 400 constructor points applied to both ’21 and ’22. This would put RB in a world of hurt, but not affect Max’s two championships.

  • So they are still talking about it all behind closed doors, that what it comes down to.. I do not understand why the FIA needed the go public with all this budget crap now when the season is still not over? Why not wait until the end of the season when also hopefully everything is concluded and clear and we as fans could enjoy the last 4 races without all this speculation that brings nothing but negativity to the sport.. All these speculative articles now everywhere in the F1 media, not interested..

  • The team/s that overspent above the monetary budget limit should pay this same amount to every other team that was in compliance and use it in the following year. This amount would not be included in the new year’s monetary budget limit for these teams that receive it. The team/s that was/were not in compliance, this monetary amount would reduced their budget limit for the following year of noncompliance. With that said…FIA would need the teams to be required to an earlier submission of their budget accounting spending for that year much earlier so FIA can evaluate these submissions in a timely fashion in order to give notice/penalties/reprimand, etc much earlier and not when 4 races are left. This could change the dynamics of what is available at the end of the season…parts testing, time in wind tunne, etc. Significant manufactures points should deducted from the year of penalty and public reprimand.

  • Surly we will see an announcement similar to the Ferrari announcement that they “reached a settlement with the team,” and that “the specifics of the agreement will remain between the parties” with no retrospective penalties were applied. Or does that only apply when Ferrari breaks the rules?

  • Lance Armstrong lost all his Tour de France wins retroactively as he’d benefited from unapproved drugs that made his ‘engine’ perform better. It was as if he had an electric motor hidden in his bike. Some even accused him of that.

    So Max benefited from driving a car that was ‘doped’ by spending unapproved money that improved his engine(?), reduced the weight(?), improved the aerodynamic efficiency(?) and possibly provided a healthier diet for the team.

    It’s obvious that Max and Checo benefited by RB overspending the budget, otherwise why do it?

    Reduce both the team and driver’s points by the same percentage they overspent the approved budget for 2021, 2022 and 2023. And reduce their budget for 2023 by the amount they overspent in 2021.

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