Christian Horner Resentfully Accepts FIA’s “Draconian” Penalty, Claims the Impact To Be Significant

FIA’s sanctions for Red Bull’s cost cap breach finally arrived. While many believe the Austrian giants got away with just a slap on the wrist, the team principal, Christian Horner, thinks the penalties are too harsh. However, he admitted to “begrudgingly” settling with the FIA to not make the matter stretch for too long.

In FIA’s verdict today, Red Bull was handed a $7 million fine and a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time. Red Bull was adjudged to have spent $2.2 million above and beyond the limit. The fine amount will have to be paid separately and will not be deducted from either this or next year’s budget.

Christian Horner thinks the penalties are too harsh

Soon after the FIA verdict arrived, the Red Bull team principal called a press conference to give his reaction. As per reporter Jenna Fryer, Horner said the actual breach was a little over $400,000, but Red Bull incorrectly excluded $1.4 million in its tax filing. He called the $7 million penalty “an enormous amount of money”.

Continuing, he talked about the reduction of wind tunnel time. “The more draconian punishment is the sporting penalty which is a 10% reduction in the use of our wind tunnel. Some people have said that is an insignificant penalty. Let me tell you now, it is an enormous amount & represents anything between 0.25-0.5 sec of lap time.”

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Horner also talked about accepting the situation and moving on. “We accept that the regulations are new, but there is still a lot of work to do. An arbitration case could have ensured that this could have gone on for another 12 months. We are now closing the book.” 

Toto Wolff’s comments on Red Bull’s “minor” breach

FIA released its report on the 2021 cost cap before the Japanese Grand Prix. That was the race where Max Verstappen had won his second world title. In the report, FIA found the Milton Keynes-based team guilty of breaching the budget ceiling but put the breach under the “procedural and minor overspend breaches” category.

Taking strong objection to the interpretation of the word ‘minor,’ Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said, “It is a so-called minor violation, but I believe that the definition is not completely correct.”

“If you spend five million more than the limit, it is still a minor violation, but the impact on the championship is significant.”

He continued, “We always monitor closely which parts are brought to the track by the top teams in each race, and for at least two seasons, we can see that there are two top teams that are the same and another that instead spends more…”

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Wolff has spoken freely on the subject of Red Bull overspending and wanted the FIA to dole out a strict punishment. It will be interesting to see what he thinks about the sanctions.