Will Red Bull’s punishment deter future F1 cost cap breaches?

Red Bull’s 2021 F1 cost cap overspend has divided opinion in the paddock, but has the FIA’s punishment reinforced the financial regulations?
Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing RB18.
Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing RB18.

Red Bull have been f✱ined $7m and docked 10 percent of their aerodynamic testing time for the next 12 months after their submitted accounts were found to be 1.6 percent over the $145m spending limit set during 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen’s title-winning 2021 campaign.

The FIA ruled there were 13 areas where Red Bull had wrongly excluded costs which 𒀰amounted to an overspend of £1.8m, however, F1’s governing body acknowledged the team would have exceeded the cap by only £432,652 had they not omitted a tax credit in their submission.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described a 10 percent aero research reduction for an “0.37% overspend” as “draconian” but said his team “begrudg🌄ingly” accepted the sanction for the g🦩ood of the sport.

With rivals including Ferrari and McLaren 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:publicly expressing their displeasure at the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:size of the penalty, questions were raised as💞 to whether the FIA’s verdict would draw a line undꦚer the case, or open up a new can of worms.

Will Red Bull’s punishment deter future F1 cost cap breaches?

Asked whether the punishment was strong enough to prevent Mercedes from purposely committing a breach in future, Toto Wolff argued the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:“reputational damage” Red Bull sustained was a big enough deterrent.

"I think what you see is that beyond the sporting penalty and the financial fine there's also a reputational damage and in 👍a world of transparency and good governance that's just not on anymore," Wolff told Sky Sports.

"And compliance-wise, in whatever team you are, you're responsibꦓle for representing a brand, your employees, your partners, and that's why for us i🐭t wouldn't be a business case.”

For Ferrari, question marks still remain.

Ferrari racing director Laurent Meki🌱es was sceptical about Horner’s claims and the overall impact of the penalty, suggesting Red Bull’s Accepted Breach Agreement with the FIA simply enꦕcourages money that could have been detracted from their budget to be spent elsewhere.

Will Red Bull’s punishment deter future F1 cost cap breaches?

“We at Ferrari do not understand how the 10% reduction of the ATA can correspond to the same amount of lap time,” Mekies told Sky𒅌 S🌄ports Italia.

“Furthermore, there is another problem in that since there is𒆙 no budget cap reduction in the penalty, the basic effect is to push the competitor to spend the money elsewhere.

“It has total freedom to use the money it ca🌸n no longer spend on u🌃se of the wind tunnel and CFD due to the 10% reduction, on reducing the weight of the car or who knows what else.

“Our concern is 𓆉that the combination of these two factors means the real effect of the penalty is very limited.”

‘Time to close the chapter’

Oth𒆙er teams believe it is the end of the matter - for now at least.

Mike Krack, whose 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果🎀历史:Aston Martin team were fined $450,000 after striking their own ABA for procedural infringements of the 🐻cost cap, insists the FIA must be trusted to govern fairly and properly.

𝓰“This is for the FIA to judge,” Krac♔k said when asked if he thinks the penalty strengthens the budget cap. “I think there has been enough polemics around the whole topic about how big the fine has to be.

“I think we should now look to the front and not back and discuss who had which fine and if it was large enough or not. The𒀰 FIA is in charge of doing that.

“We have to trust that they do that co꧅rrec🍷tly and respect that.”

(L to R): Franz Tost (AUT) AlphaTauri Team Principal; Frederic Vasseur (FRA) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Team Principal; and Mike
(L to R): Franz Tost (AUT) AlphaTauri Team Principal; Frederic Vasseur (FRA) Alfa Romeo F1…

Despite dismissing Red Bull’s claim that their penalty could cost them up to half a second in laptime next season, Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur echoed Wolff’s view that brand 🔴damage alone would stop teams from making the same mis🔯take.

"The biggest punishment for a team is to accept that they were overspending, in te🍌rms of image, and we don’t have to underestimate this one ෴– for your employees, for your sponsors and so on,” Vasseur explained.

“I t🐼hink it’s very good to reach the end of the discussion, to have a clear picture of the FIA, to hav✤e a clear decision from the FIA, to have an agreement from the team, also this will help to close the chapter.

“Then if you speak about technical or sporting decisions or penalties, it’s a bit different for me because I’m not sure we are making ha🎶lf a second with 10 per cent of your allocation, or we are very stupid.”

Horner highlighted the matter could have dragged on for “months” had Red Bull challenged the FIA and decided to take things as fa𒅌r as the FIA’s International Court of Appeal.

Will Red Bull’s punishment deter future F1 cost cap breaches?

Concerns have also been raised about how long the auditing process took, as well as the prosp💟ect for F1 to be facing a case of deja vu when the results ofไ teams’ spending for 2022 are revealed.

To avoid another potential cost cap saga this time next year, teams have urged F1 and the FIA to find a way of spee♉ding up the process to ensure there is no controversy hanging oꦚver the outcome of the previous season’s championship.

“I think we should cl♎ose this chapter now for 2021 but the FIA has to control the teams from the very beginning onwards👍, from January onwards, which is what I said already two years ago when we discussed this cost cap story,” said AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost.

“Why? Because the regulation is very, very complicated and there is room for different interpretations and theref🍰ore the teams need some support and the FIA has to send people to the teams to check all this because it’s bad for the image of Formula 1, for the teams, whatever, if one year afterwards we discuss about overspending or whatever.

“This has to be doꦡne and sorted out during the season, that at the end of the season everything is finalised and the technical regulations are also possible; why shouldn’t it be possible in the financial regulations.

"We have a meeting every Tuesday. I know every Tuesday ꦕhow much we are below the cost cap and how we have to react and I think this should be the F1 standard, that at the end of the season we know who won the championship and that this team was below the cost cap and everything has been sorted out.”

Will Red Bull’s punishment deter future F1 cost cap breaches?

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