Context? Red Bull Overspend Explained
Author: Tom Magnay
The news that broke towards the end of last week, during the runup to the Mexican Grand Prix, was the fate of Red Bull Racing in terms of their overspend punishment. The news probably came as no real surprise to many, least of all Christian Horner and the RBR management, who had reportedly spent much of the previous week around the USGP countering the FIAs decision and the punishment which they had been dealt.
That's right - reports emerged around ten days ago that Red Bull had actually already been dealt their dues heading into Austin but had submitted a plea to the FIA to agree upon a suitable penance.
On Friday, Red Bull Racing were slapped with a fine of $7,000,000, payable within 30 days, and a 10% reduction in aerodynamic testing time from the announcement of the Accepted Breach Agreement. The FIA said in a statement that there was no "accusation of evidence" that the Milton Keynes team had "sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonesty or in a fraudulent manner, nor has it willfully concealed any information from the Cost Cap Administration."
There had been rumours that the punishment could have been as extreme as the 2021 drivers title being stripped from Max Verstappen. The overspend relates to 13 errors listed by the FIA which states that RBR exceeded the budget cap by £1,864,000, or 1.6%. It emerged that apprenticeship costs, cost recharged to Red Bull Powertrains, catering budgets and social security contributions all added up to the errors brought into question.
To bring the 10% aero development reduction into some form of context, if Ferrari and Mercedes keep P2 and P3 in the manufacturer standings, they will have 75 and 80% respectively of the aero testing time of the P7 finishing team - very likely Williams. As Red Bull have won the manufacturers championship, the team would be due 70% of the P7 finisher, but this will now reduce by the allotted ten percent, thus it drops to 63%.
In a live press conference at Mexico GP, Red Bull Team Boss Christian Horner said the following to the gathered world media:
"Potentially mistakes have been made in our submission. Which with the benefit of hindsight, and twenty twenty vision, everybody can be a specialist. There was no intent, there was nothing dishonest, and there was certainly no cheating involved which has been alleged in certain corners, so I don't feel that we need to apologise. There are lessons that have been learnt, I think that everybody can learn from this."
Rival team bosses, namely Zak Brown of McLaren Racing, as well as murmurings from Ferrari and Mercedes, have called the fine, and more-so the 10% reduction in wind tunnel time 'too lenient' and not a harsh enough penalty for Red Bull. The fact of the matter from where I sit, is that if Mclaren and the rest of the opposing parties consider the 10% reduction a risk worth taking, then they would all go over the spend-cap by the same amount as Red Bull now that this precedent has been set. But of course, they won't go over the spend-cap because a 10% reduction is exactly that, and that's a great deal of development cut for the upcoming season, so that tells me exactly what the really think of the punishment.
Aston Martin Racing were fined $450,000 for their own minor overspend, of course this was of far less interest to the masses given their lower ranking in the WDC and constructors standings. One thing that is quite clear with this overspend investigation and outcome is that the FIA are trying to be as transparent as possible - given the shady fine Ferrari were dealt behind closed doors in February 2020 following a detailed analysis of their 2019 engine and a subsequent agreement with the FIA. This Red Bull saga which has, hopefully, been put to bed, until next time, has given us - the motor racing fan - a pretty clear insight into the lengths that the governing bodies will go into to make sure that the new spending rules are being adhered to. And we can't argue that the new rules and regs brought in this year haven't given us, at times, some of the best racing Formula One has had to offer in recent years.
Social:
Tom Magnay: @tommagnay01
BlendLine Apparel: @blend_line
All content, written, photographic or otherwise remains property of BlendLine Apparel and may not be reproduced without written permission.
