It is now known that the FIA auditors have launched an investigation into Red Bull and other Formula 1 teams, as it is suspected that Red Bull and Aston Martin have violated the budget cap rules. Earlier today, Sky Sport made an estimate of how many millions Christian Horner and his team would have spent more than allowed.
How much did Red Bull “go over”? Sky’s indiscretion
Budget cap summary. Formula 1 introduced the so-called budget cap at the start of the 2021 season, setting the maximum spending limit for teams throughout the championship at $ 145 million. In 2022 the threshold was lowered to 140 million and it is planned to lower it by a further 5 million in 2023. However, in recent months, it was decided to raise the spending limit by 3.1%, in order to take into account the inflation on transport costs that the teams have been forced to bear due to the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
How much did Red Bull exceed the budget cap?
According to Sky Sport F1, in 2021 Red Bull would have exceeded the maximum spending limit (set at 145 million) by about 10 million. A huge figure that would go well beyond that threshold of 5% (about 7.25 million) that makes the difference between a “minor infringement” (the one of which Aston Martin is accused, to be clear) and a “major infringement”. In the first case, the matter is penalized with a fine (as happened to Williams). In the second case, official explanations are awaited from the FIA, which has never clarified in detail what the consequences would be for this type of infringement.
