Rivals have questioned the impact of the penalty given to Red Bull for breaching last year’s Formula 1 cost cap.
It was confirmed on Friday that Red Bull has been fined $7 million and lost 10 percent of its wind tunnel time over the next 12 months.
Team boss Christian Horner described it as “draconian” and claimed it could have an on-track impact of as much as 0.5s per lap.
That is a point disputed by rivals who suggest the lack of a cost cap reduction makes the penalty comparatively toothless.
“The scale of that penalty isn’t much more than what you would lose if you’re just one place higher up in the championship,” noted Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director.
“I think describing it as draconian is an exaggeration.
“Reducing the number of runs does limit your freedom when you’re developing a concept, but we’re in reasonably well-explored regulations now.
“You definitely have to be more efficient. But, if it were half a second, which I’d heard mentioned, then a team at the back of the grid would have over three seconds advantage to one at the front, And that simply isn’t the case.”
By finishing second in last year’s championship, and winning the 2022 competition, Red Bull was going to have just 70 percent utilisation of its wind tunnel under the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions anyway.
With the 10 percent reduction, that drops to 63 percent.
Debate over the cost cap saga has been ongoing since allegations Red Bull had breached the cap arose in Singapore – with concerns over how the information found its way to rival teams in the first place – and has dominated headlines since.
With a resolution now in place, rivals are pleased the process has been completed and the sport can now move forward even if underwhelmed by the penalty itself.
“It is good news that the FIA has reached a clear conclusion and established the breach,” said Laurent Mekies, Sporting Director at Ferrari.
“Good news for the sport, good news for us. It’s also good news that the breach is admitted by all parties and therefore we are very satisfied that we reached that – it is pretty much what we are calling for.”
Mekies argues, however, that while reducing the time Red Bull can spend in the wind tunnel, without a reduction in the cost cap to match that, the team can simply divert those funds to other areas.
“The penalty is what it is. We certainly feel it is low,” he ventured.
“We don’t see it on the same scale as being able to compensate the overspend that was done, especially combined with the fact that ultimately it is not combined with any budget cap reductions for them.
“Therefore, you are effectively completely free to spend your money elsewhere.
“You will spend a little bit less in the wind tunnel, where you have this 10 percent restrictions; you will spend it elsewhere.
“So we think that, all together, what we remain of the real impact of the penalty will probably be very small.”
That could be in areas like weight reduction or suspension upgrades, he noted, effectively equating a loss in one area to a potential gain in other.
“But it depends on how well you make decisions during the year,” Shovlin noted on the stopwatch impact of the penalty.
“I’d have thought a 0.1s or a bit more than 0.1s is probably – maybe 0.2s at the upper end – is realistically what that would cost you.”
Red Bull was found to have overspent last year’s cost cap by £1.864 million, a figure that dropped to just over £450,000 once miscalculated tax credits were taken into account.
That, Horner argued, was the result of a reclassification of how some parts were covered under the cap, the way the team’s cafeteria was accounted for, and costs relating to sick leave and departing staff.
All told, he claimed those areas amounted to £3.5 million, which would have seen Red Bull well under the cap if not for the FIA’s interpretation.
Rather than continue to pursue the matter, and risk an even steeper penalty, Horner “begrudgingly” agreed to the Accepted Breach Agreement offered by the FIA, putting the matter to bed.
Discussion about this post