Just a day after Red Bull helped Max Verstappen retain his F1 driver’s title, they fell in trouble. As the 2021 cost cap findings were released by the FIA, they held the Austrian team accountable for breaching the cost cap limit. However, as Red Bull finds a way to survive the axe, Toto Wolff, his Mercedes, and Ferrari refrain from staying quiet.

FIA and F1’s managing director Ross Brawn already made it clear that breaching the budget cap will cost the teams heavily. Amid all this” Red Bull will try to look for a way to evade the charge. However, paying the amount as an “amnesty” will not work, as threatens Toto Wolff.

Sources from Corriere Dello Sport read, “If Red Bull had gone behind by two million, it could close the matter by paying the FIA ​​five times, so ten million. And in any case, it would not be fair because it would establish the right to cheat by paying an amnesty.”

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“Mercedes have already talked about it and, if this were really the point of failure, the Star [Toto Wolff] is ready to plan extra budget and related fine to recover performance and return to the top,” the statement from the report published by Formula Passion further stated.

Toto Wolff recalls “painful” Mercedes 2021 season

Mercedes AMG F1 team principal Toto Wolff shared the “painful” story behind Mercedes’ 2021 season, where the team had to slash the workforce to fit into the cost cap fixed by the FIA. The Brackley-based team not only reduced the number of staff but also had to bring down their overall expenditure.

As per reports, Mercedes spent around $368 million in 2020 and close to $337 million in the 2021 F1 season. [The amounts were converted from Pound Sterling to US Dollars]. Coming from there to fit everything within the $145 million budget cap and then seeing arch-rivals Red Bull breach the budget cap must be hard for Wolff and his team.

In a report published by The Motorsport, Wolff shared, “We had to restructure and change our processes, make people redundant, unfortunately also, to fit into the cost cap.” The Silver Arrows boss further stated, “Which is particularly painful if you hear the discussions of teams not having done that.”

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FIA introduced a budget cap last year to provide every team with a fair playing field and increase the overall competition. The teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull spent way lot than the teams like Haas and Williams, and, as a result, they were miles behind in terms of performance.