A dangerous precedent, this is the comment of many in the paddock, as soon as two teams violated the 2021 budget cap: Red Bull e Aston Martin who for weeks have suffered the pressure of those who accused them of having profited from the last world championship, of having voluntarily exceeded the spending ceiling in order to gain an advantage on the track. More than one thing was not clear, namely theextent of the violation, which emerged "in pieces" and the appropriate sanction for a similar violation, and this was perhaps the most difficult knot to unravel.
The competing teams, Mercedes, Ferrari as well as McLaren, they immediately invoked an exemplary penalty, Red Bull on the other hand, certain of its situation and of what it had overstepped, hoped to receive a fine and little more. On Friday, pre Mexico Christian horner disclosed the exact extent of the violation, or a 1,6% compared to the ceiling, given by 2,2 million dollars, which would have been 0,5 if only the team had applied the correct tax credit, with an effective violation which in that case would have occurred at 0,37%. He also stated that he has accepted the plea agreement with the FIA.
The penalties
The FIA, after the necessary checks, has decided not to touch the sporting results, combining at Red Bull, below Accepted Breach Agreement, or ABA (ie a possible plea agreement for the type of violation made by the RB), three penalties: a 7 million fine – outside the budget cap – to be paid within 30 days, a 10% reduction in wind tunnel hours over the next 12 months and payment of costs relating to the settlement. Although Horner has declared that the penalty is too severe, his opponents would not be of the same opinion. He also expressed himself during the weekend in Mexico Laurent mekies, sporting director of the Ferrari team.
Mekies: "We can never be happy with the penalty"
To the microphones of Sky Italia, the Ferrari sporting director complained about the sentence judged too light. The reduction in hours is not enough considering that the RB18 is already an almost perfect base and a similar penalty would not limit its development. Ferrari this season, errors aside, has always approached Red Bull with quite similar values. An advantage of 2-3 tenths could be the one capable of elevating it to at least the same level as Red Bull, and this it hoped to achieve with the penalty. However Mekies says he is skeptical and fears that Red Bull could get away with spending the money elsewhere given that the budget cap has not been reduced in any way.
"Ferrari has made it a priority that the FIA made it clear and he did, confirming the illegality of the budget cap. And it was the most important parameter, and the Red Bull team also admitted it and this is positive”said Ferrari's sporting director.
“We talked a lot about the extent of the violation and we know that two million is a large violation, which equals a couple of tenths. These are numbers that have a real impact on the races, it is a figure of a certain importance". Mekies expressed his total disagreement with the combined penalty against Red Bull: "We can never be happy with the penalty. We don't understand how 10% of the reduction can correspond to two tenths of an advantage. And there hasn't been a reduction in the budget cap. So they can spend it elsewhere, improving the car. This combination makes us fear that the real effect of the sanction is small. But now we need to move on, let's hope we don't have to wait so long for the certifications on the 2022 budget cap"
Source statements: FormulaPassion
