Red Bull have secured the 2022 Formula 1 Drivers title with Max Verstappen last time out at the Suzuka circuit and are very close to winning the Constructors’ Championship, which they will most likely achieve this weekend in the United States Grand Prix, their first title since 2013. But their celebrations have been overshadowed by the budget cap breach scandal and in the Austin paddock you could clearly see on the Austrian team’s facial expressions that they are certainly not enjoying loving life at the moment, given the fact that their situation has been causing a lot of anger among rival teams since the news was out.
Just one day after Max Verstappen mathematically won the championship two weeks ago in Japan, the FIA officially confirmed that Red Bull did not respect the £114 million budget cap for the previous campaign, with Mercedes of course immediately questioning the legitimacy of the Dutchman’s title in 2021, which was won after a close battle against Lewis Hamilton.
Based on the financial regulations for the budget cap, Red Bull have been found guilty of what is called a ‘minor’ breach, with the team having reportedly overspent in 2021 by about $1.8 million.
Despite this not should like a lot, it is worth pointing out that Mercedes spent $3.5 million overall on developments for the W12, which shows that having the possibility of spending an extra two million dollars could give a big advantage in terms of possible updates and development. Now the main topic of discussion is what did Red Bull use the money for, something that seems to involve more than one department.
Red Bull have supposedly overspent on catering, with British engineer and chief technology officer Adrian Newey also being involved due to the way his salary was reported by the Austrian side, according to several reports.
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Adrian Newey’s salary is an issue because Red Bull have officially reported that their chief technology officer is one of their top three highest earners, which would excluding him from the budget rules. As the FIA has not yet confirmed what penalty Red Bull would receive, teams are urging the FIA not to let Red Bull off the hook with just a fine or a small sanction. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown recently sent a letter to the FIA, labelling the Austrian side as having “cheated”.
Some have asked for Red Bull to be excluded from this season’s Constructors’ Championship, which they are set to win.
British Formula One pit-lane reporter who works on Sky Sports F1, Ted Kravitz, has pointed out that the governing body should “take away” Red Bull’s prize money from the current F1 campaign and demote them to the end of the pit-lane for the following season, something that would be an embarrassing “public sanction” for the guilty party.
“The other teams will demand that if there is a penalty to be meated out that it is both sufficiently harsh in a sporting way and in a financial way, and in a way that has an effect on Red Bull going into next season,” Ted Kravitz said to Sky Sports.
“Because even though we are talking about the budget cap for last season, what all the other teams are saying is this has a beneficial effect for Red Bull going into 2022, this year and 2023. So I think a lot of teams are thinking well if you can exclude them from this year’s constructors championship, which they are just about to win. Take away all of their money, Red Bull are well financed from all their sponsors anyway so it’s not going to be too much of a problem if they lose $150million in prize money from Formula One. And have the effect of putting them at the back of the pit lane order for next year, that would be enough of a public sanction if they have been proved to have broken the rules to make it a deterrence for anybody else to do something similar in the future.” – Ted Kravitz concluded.
Red Bull may reach a ‘breach agreement’ with the FIA, which would lead to a lighter penalty.
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