“Taken a Very Public Pounding”: Christian Horner Reveals Reason Behind Red Bull’s Reputational Damage, Calls for It to Stop

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner didn’t like the way Red Bull was publicly held responsible for cheating. Horner shared that every single member of the Bulls family went through upsetting times due to the accusations made in public. The Briton believes that the time has come for everything to stop.

In a report published by Motorsport, Horner conveyed, “We’ve taken our pounding in public, we’ve taken a very public pounding, through the accusations that have been made by other teams. Our drivers have been booed at circuits. And the reputational damage that has been made by allegations has been significant. The time has come for that to stop.”

Red Bull was accused of breaching the 2021 budget cap regulations around one and a half hour after Max Verstappen’s title win in Japan. However, with things under control now, the 48-year-old boss revealed that other teams had a great role to play in the public humiliation Red Bull faced.

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The Red Bull boss further shared, “The accusations made in Singapore were extremely upsetting for every single member of staff, all our partners, everyone involved within Red Bull.” Rumors rounded up against the Austrian team in Singapore that they breached the budget cap limit until official statements from FIA surfaced later on.

How did everything settle down on the Budget cap row for Red Bull?

After a series of developments, FIA finally revealed the penalties for the five times constructor’s champions over their breach of the 2021 cost cap, which was $145 million a year. The team from Austria was handed over a $7 million fine and a 10% deduction in aerodynamic testing for the next 12 months.

FIA also stated that the Milton-Keynes-based team has breached less than 5% of the allotted amount. Calling it a minor breach, the amount was anywhere near $2.2 million. However, anything over 5% or $7.25 million would’ve made it a material breach and could have attracted stricter punishment.

Christian Horner, however, was not happy with the penalties. Calling it “draconian” and “enormous“, the Red Bull boss was certainly not convinced of the FIA directives. However, he could not help but accept the FIA’s terms as the Austrian team are slated to pay the amount as a fine for breaching the cost cap.

WATCH THIS STORY: Christian Horner Unhappy with 2022 Budget Cap, Calls for Urgent Attention

Interestingly, Red Bull’s rivals Mercedes and Ferrari were not happy with the penalties. Calling “draconian” as “an exaggeration” Mercedes’s engineering director Andrew Shovlin insisted that the punishment was far from ideal and would do little to mark the importance of the budget regulation. Shovlin was supported by Laurent Mekies, Ferrari’s sporting director, who stated that the punishment will “likely to have very little impact on Red Bull.”