In a bombshell announcement from the FIA, the world motorsport governing body have found both Red Bull and Aston Martin teams to be in breach of F1’s new cost cap regulations for the 2021 season. Aston Martin and Red Bull have been found guilty of a procedural breach. In addition, Red Bull has also been found guilty of a minor cost cap breach which means the number it breached the cost cap is less than $7.25 million. The exact figure of the breach is so far unknown.
Since the Singapore GP, there had been rumours swirling around the paddock that two F1 teams had been found to be guilty of breaching the cost cap regulations which came into force in 2021. It had been reported that Red Bull and Aston Martin had been the offending parties, but Red Bull took great Umbridge to those claims and threatened legal action against chatter in the paddock.
In 2021, the cost cap was restricted at $145 million and progressively in the 2022 and 2023 seasons that number is going to come further down in order to bridge the gap between the top three F1 teams – Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari and the rest of the pack.
“The FIA Cost Cap Administration is currently determining the appropriate course of action to be taken under the financial regulations with respect to Aston Martin and Red Bull and further information will be communicated in compliance with the regulations,” said FIA in a statement.
While the final course of action is yet to be determined, for Aston Martin the breach is a rather one, but for Red Bull it could come with dire consequences like deduction of points from the 2021 championship which could potentially lead to Verstappen losing his first world title win. But this would be very unlikely – rather Red Bull could be sanctioned and there would be limits imposed on its aerodynamic testing allowance for the future with further cuts in its cost cap.
Anything less would not appease F1’s bigwigs Ferrari and Mercedes who have been on a drumroll claiming that even the slightest breach in the cost cap could give Red Bull a massive advantage for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, with 2023 being in ambit too.
Red Bull for its part is disappointed considering Max Verstappen just wrapped up his second F1 world title this weekend at Suzuka.
"We note the findings by the FIA of 'minor overspend breaches of the financial regulations' with surprise and disappointment. 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,” the team said in a statement.
