Zak Brown calls for sporting sanction for Red Bull in letter to FIA

In today's digital age, there's nothing better than a good old-fashioned letter to stand out and get your message across. According to the BBC and our colleague Andrew Benson, Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, has in fact split a letter sent to the FIA ​​and the six other teams not concerned by any violation of the 2021 Financial Regulations. As a reminder, the FIA ​​announced that Red Bull is silent found guilty of a minor violation of the budget cap, indicating that the Austrian structure had exceeded it by a range of less than 5%. For the moment, no decision has been taken, but the Milton Keynes team risks a sanction ranging from a simple fine to the loss of championship points.

This Monday, our colleagues at the BBC went so far as to reveal the words written by Brown on the famous letter. “The failure to overspend, and possibly the procedural failure, constitutes blatant cheating offering a significant advantage over technical, sporting and financial regulations” he considers. For Brown, playing the card of the novelty of the financial regulations and the lack of clarity of the FIA ​​is not admissible. “The FIA ​​conducted an extremely thorough, collaborative and open process, he said. We even had a one-year dress rehearsal (In 2020), with the opportunity to ask for clarification if details were unclear. So there is no reason to say now that they are surprised. » 

Zak Brown: “A financial sanction would be insufficient”

And Brown continues. “Ultimately, any team that overspends gains an unfair advantage in both developing this year's car and next year's car. We do not believe that a financial penalty alone would be an appropriate sanction for a budget overrun or procedural violation. There must clearly be a sporting sanction in these cases, as determined by the FIA ​​regulations. » 

The American even had a proposal for sanctions in his pen! “We suggest that the overrun be penalized by a reduction in the team's cost cap in the year following the decision, and that the penalty be equal to the overrun, in addition to the additional fine (Editor's note: basically, in the event of exceeding $2 million in 2021, if it is identified in 2022, this would result in a deduction of $4 million in 2023). » “For context, $2 million represents a 25-50% upgrade to the annual single-seater development budget and would therefore have a significant and lasting benefit.»

Zak Brown hopes for a sporting sanction for Red Bull. © Julien Delfosse / DPPI

“In addition, we believe there should be minor sporting penalties for exceeding the budget cap, and a 20% reduction in CFD and wind tunnel time. These should be implemented in the following year, to mitigate the unfair advantage that the team enjoys and will continue to enjoy in subsequent years.” The American manager seems to have definitely thought of everything, since he even suggested a change in regulations.

“To prevent minor overruns from accumulating and for teams to benefit from the multiplier effect, we suggest that a second minor overrun automatically moves the team towards a major overrun”. “Finally, given the finances involved, a threshold of 5% for a minor expenditure overrun seems far too large a gap (around 7 million euros). We suggest that a lower threshold, 2,5%, would be more appropriate. » It remains to be seen whether lawmakers will take into account the remarks made by Brown and McLaren. In any case, this has the merit of putting pressure on the FIA. 

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