Budget cap: minor violation too high for Red Bull rivals

At a press conference in Austin, the subject of the budget cap (145 million dollars) exceeded by Red Bull obviously got people talking. In particular, with the Principal Teams. In its official communication, the FIA ​​explained that this only represented a minor violation of the financial regulations, i.e. less than 5%. For other teams, this margin of error is already far too high. What Zak Brown did not fail to point out in a letter addressed to the governing bodies, demanding sporting and financial sanctions against the Austrian team, crowned champion last weekend in the United States.

Zak Brown: “5% is way too high”

“The 5% is much too high, confirmed the Team Principal of McLaren, asked about the budget cap in Texas. This is something that all the teams have discussed and agreed on. That's something that we need to look at, because 5% is, you know, a very large percentage of money for things like developing the car, or people to hire, or all that. which you can choose to spend the money on. This absolutely needs to be reviewed. »

Jost Capito agreed with this. “I have the same opinion, added the Team Principal of Williams. The 5% represents a considerable sum. When you look at the past, before the cost cap, and you compare Williams to the top teams, they were spending five to six times more, not 5%. This is a much smaller gap now, but it still needs to be addressed. In the long term we all want to be on a level playing field (…) I agree that this is the first time this regulation has been applied and it has had a huge impact on many teams . Having some sort of 5% threshold for this first year makes sense, but it needs to be stricter and clearer in the future as the FIA ​​and the teams gain experience with it. cost capping rules. These are complicated regulations and they need to be. This requires a lot of work and I see that when we work within the Commission F1, the teams work very well together to find solutions with the FIA ​​and the FOM. »

Same story from the pilots’ side. While Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) called for “clarity” and a decision “fair and relatively important to convey the idea to the teams of exceeding this budget cap again”, Valtteri Bottas was more offensive. "The rules are the rules, if you don't follow them it's a penalty, launched the old pilot Mercedes, now at Alfa Romeo. I hope this is a strict and painful penalty, because this shouldn't happen. This must hurt them, because even if we (Mercedes. Editor’s note) We won the Manufacturers ranking in 2021, we lost the Drivers ranking, and we know that a few million can make a big difference..."

The competition is therefore hoping for a spicy sanction against Red Bull. While the outcome of this story should have been known last weekend in Texas, the death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz postponed the end of the debates and the FIA's communication for a few days, for reasons of decency. obvious.

ALSO READ > Should Red Bull be downgraded for exceeding the budget cap in 2021?