Max Verstappen Dubbed “Costcappen” in Front of Christian Horner as Fans React to Cold-Blooded Defamation of Red Bull Golden Boy

FIA’s sanctions for Red Bull’s cost cap breach came in yesterday. While Red Bull boss Christian Horner felt the sanctions were too much, some fans thought they got away with a slap on the wrist. Now a clip of David Croft asking Horner a question has gone viral, which was trimmed by fans to take a hilarious dig at Max Verstappen winning the championship title under controversial circumstances.

FIA adjudged Red Bull to have spent $2.2 million beyond the stipulated budget. Consequentially, the ruling body fined the Milton-Keynes-based team $7 million. On top of the fine, they will have 10% of their wind tunnel time reduced.

Fans take a dig at Max Verstappen with a snipped video

In a press conference following FIA’s announcement of sanctions, F1 commentator David Croft asked Christian Horner if he felt the overspending gave Red Bull an unfair advantage over their rivals.

While framing his question, ‘Crofty’ used the words “cost cap and”, which was enough for the netizens to have fun with. One Twitter user cleverly snipped the video to make it sound like Crofty used the word “Costcappen”.

Costcappen is a word that has been doing the rounds on the internet to take a dig at Max Verstappen and his team.

Here is how the fans reacted to the edited clip.

One fan took a dig at Red Bull’s tagline.

Read More: “Cheater Cheater Cheater”: Fans Label FIA’s Sanction ‘A F**king Joke’ as Red Bull Gets Away With a Slap on the Wrist

One fan lauded David Croft for asking the right question.

Christian Horner in the presser said they “begrudgingly” settled with the FIA. The team boss accepted the sanctions despite finding them harsh.

Christian Horner on “draconian” punishment

As Jenna Fryer reported, Horner revealed the actual breach was a little over $400,000. It was failing to include $1.4 million in the tax filing that inflated the breach. Red Bull will have to pay the $7 million fine separately. The amount will not be deducted from next year’s budget. Horner termed the multi-million dollar fine as, “an enormous amount of money.”

The Red Bull team principal continued, “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.”

“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.”

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With Red Bull already having the least time for wind tunnel testing, as they are P1 in the championship, this 10% is surely going to cost them. However, a lot of the fans have faith in the 11-time world champion Adrian Newey as they hope the Austrian team will still be strong the next year.

But what do you think? Does the punishment fit the crime? Or was Red Bull let off easily?