‘Is Red Bull in danger of losing points in the 2021 F1 championship’? “It will be even worse”. This is how Bernie Ecclestone, as reported by the Swiss newspaper Blick, answered a questioned for veteran Swiss journalist Roger Benoit regarding the completely unknown scenario that awaits Red Bull after the failure to receive the certificate of suitability from the FIA for compliance with the budget cap set at 145 million dollars in 2021.
The Federation confirmed that eight teams respected the budget cap rules – Ferrari, Mercedes, AlphaTauri, Haas, Alpine, Williams, McLaren and Alfa Romeo – while infringements have been pointed out for Aston Martin and Red Bull. As far as Lawrence Stroll’s team is concerned, the infringement is only of a procedural nature, while the team led by Christian Horner was also found guilty of a minor infringement regarding the budget cap limit.
According to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, the definition of ‘minor’ infringement is not suitable, taking into consideration the fact that even an extra $ 500,000 in expense can allow a team to gain performance advantages in terms of lap time.
The penalties available to the FIA to punish Red Bull range from a simple fine to the deduction of points in both world rankings in 2021, a possibility that in theory could take away Max Verstappen’s the first world title, which was won last season with an advantage of just eight points over Lewis Hamilton.
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Bernie Ecclestone’s answer “it will be worse” does not necessarily mean that the 2021 F1 world championship will be affected. In the past, the former Formula 1 boss often had to manage such controversial issues and since he has not been in charge of the sport, he often stressed that there are various possibilities to sanction those who have made a mistake or a violation of the regulation relating to seasons that have already been concluded.
It is possible that Bernie Ecclestone is also thinking about the future competitiveness of Red Bull which could be curbed in the coming seasons through a reduced budget as well as less tools or time to develop the future cars of the Milton Keynes team.
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