On Monday it was determined that Red Bull had violated one minor financial regulation in FIA’s budget cap report for 2021.
Red Bull has publicly expressed their disagreement with the FIA’s finding that the Austrian team exceeded the budget cap from the previous year.
Max Verstappen’s championship victory in 2021 was already controversial after the dramatic Safety Car restart led by now-former race director Michael Masi. But just as the Formula 1 community was beginning to move over it, allegations of financial rule violations surfaced.
According to a recent FIA’s budget cap report, Red Bull and Aston Martin exceeded the $145 million budget cap for last year, with the former allegedly exceeding it by $10 million.
Given that it exceeds the cap by more than 5%, this would be a significant violation, however the FIA determined that Red Bull only made a minor mistake.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit is also reported to have overspent by about $2 million, with catering and sick pay being major contributors.
However, the team has denied this and said that their calculations diverge from those of the FIA. The team also criticized the derogatory remarks made by other teams during the past few weeks.
“We note the findings by the FIA of ‘minor overspend breaches of the financial regulations’ with surprise and disappointment,” Red Bull released a statement just after the FIA’s findings.
“Our 2021 submission was below the cost cap limit, so we need to carefully review the FIA’s findings as our belief remains that the relevant costs are under the 2021 cost cap amount.”
“Despite the conjecture and positioning of others, there is of course a process under the regulations with the FIA which we will respectfully follow while we consider all the options available to us.”
Aston Martin was also deemed to have violated procedural rules on Monday after mistakes were discovered in their paperwork.
