Catering, employee retention and taxes: how Red Bull justifies breaching budget cap. How Red Bull justifies breaching budget cap.

From $4 million under the budget cap limit to $ 1.8 million in excess. This is the difference – of 5.8 million dollars – between what Red Bull presented to the FIA ​​regarding the costs incurred for the 2021 Formula 1 and the expenditures identified by the Federation which just one hour after Max Verstappen’s title victory in Japan informed Christian Horner that Red Bull had breached the spending limit. A phone call that – according to the Racingnews365 website, came directly from former Mercedes member Shaila Ann-Rao, who now occupies a prominent position in the Federation in acting as general secretary of motorsport.

The reasons why Red Bull went from being “definitely under the spending cap” as Christian Horner had pointed out to a minor, but not marginal overrun, are attributable to four areas. Costs related to catering, expenses for team members who were unable to work because they were ill or expenses attributable to gardening leave were counted in the same way as spare parts used by Red Bull. In addition, a different classification in terms of taxation with the British authorities has contributed to such a wide gap between what the financial reports of what the Milton Keynes team had estimated and what was actually accounted for by the Cost Cap Administration of the FIA.

The Federation has presented an offer to Red Bull to settle the issue, an opportunity for the team led by Christian Horner to close the affair linked to the failure to comply with the budget cap through an admission of guilt. The alternative is to challenge the FIA ​​again and explain their point of view in front of a panel of judges which also includes five members of other teams.

If the appeal were lost, however, Red Bull would risk incurring harsher penalties than those currently proposed by the Federation in a confidential manner.

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