The FIA has sanctioned Red Bull Racing with a fine of 7 million dollars it’s a 10% reduction of the hours available for the use of the wind tunnel for the development of the car. This, in summary, is the result of the settlement agreement on the team’s overrun of the budget cap in the 2021 World Cup.
Going into more detail, it was found that Red Bull Racing broke the budget cap of 1.8 million pounds which are equal to about 2.1 million dollars (exceeded the limit of 1.6%). Furthermore, 13 procedural errors were found. The team, in fact, had excluded a series of costs that, instead, should have been included in the budget cap and vice versa.
In the statement, the FIA highlighted that Red Bull Racing has been actively collaborating, providing information and evidence in a timely manner. Furthermore, it was added that there would be no evidence that the team acted in bad faith or that they tried to hide the information.
The Cost Cap Administration acknowledged that Red Bull Racing acted cooperatively throughout the review process and sought to provide additional information and evidence when requested in a timely manner; whereas this is the first year of full application of the new Financial Regulation, which is a very complex set of rules that teams had to adapt to; that there is no allegation or evidence that Red Bull Racing has at any time tried to act in bad faith, dishonestly or fraudulently.
The FIA also pointed out that if the team had used the tax credit correctly, the budget cap overrun would have been even lower, at around $ 500,000 (£ 432,652), i.e. only 0.37% above the limit. granted by the regulation. For all these reasons, the Federation has decided to issue a “light” sanction.
Obviously there are those who would have wanted a more severe punishment for Red Bull Racing. The controversy over the team’s infringement has been a lot over the past few weeks. However, it must also be said that a 10% reduction in the time of use of the wind tunnel is not a small penalty since it can still have a certain impact on the development of the car.
In fact, the Horner team principal stressed that 10% less time for aerodynamic testing will impact the development of the single-seater in 2023.
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