Exceeding the budget ceiling? Red Bull cheated, McLaren boss is clear. What punishment has he proposed for the Austrian team?

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) has recently released a document on budget caps, which shows that Red Bull in particular has broken this rule. And just a few dozen hours ago, McLaren boss Zak Brown weighed in on the subject and proposed his own form of punishment for the Austrian team.

The FIA published its report on budget caps on Monday, October 10, and the result was clear. Red Bull failed to comply with the budget cap. However, it committed a less serious offence, that of exceeding the cap by less than $5 million.

There are then different penalties for breaching the budget cap rules. From financial penalties to the loss of points in the Constructors’ Cup and the Drivers’ Championship.

Aston Martin and Williams have also committed procedural misconduct. The other seven teams have received certificates from the FIA for compliance with the rules.

The bosses of the Mercedes and Ferrari teams, namely Toto Wolff and Mattia Binotto, then naturally called for the harshest penalties, with the latter claiming that such an overrun of Red Bull’s budget ceiling could have ensured up to five tenths of a second per lap.

McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown even sent a letter to the FIA, the contents of which were quoted by Motorsport.

What did the letter to the FIA say?

“Any team that has overspent has gained an unfair advantage in the development of the car in the current and following year,” Brown said of the budget cap breach via the letter.

“The overspending and possible procedural violations constitute cheating by offering a significant advantage across technical, sporting and financial regulations,” he explained.

“We propose that overspending be penalized by a reduction in the team’s budget cap in the year following the decision, and the penalty should be equal to the overspending plus an additional penalty – i.e., a $2 million overrun in 2021 that is discovered in 2022 will result in a $4 million deduction in 2023 ($2 million to offset the overspending plus $2 million as a penalty), ” Brown suggested his form of punishment for Red Bull.

As Motorsport has also reported, the $2 million is only 1.3% of the budget cap. Brown then is also in favour of sporting sanctions and thus, in the final analysis, endorsed the words of Wolff and Binott.

“In addition, we believe there should be minor sporting penalties for overspending in the form of a 20% reduction in CFD (computer simulation of fluid flow, editor’s note) and wind tunnel time. These should be applied in the following year to mitigate the unfair advantages the team has and will continue to benefit from.”

Also part of the proposal is that the FIA should consider a 2.5% overshoot, not 5%, to be a lower overshoot of the budget ceiling.

Brown addressed this letter to the FIA president and F1 chief last week, and subsequently sent it to all teams that have complied with the budget cap. And in this case that means Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams.

So the question now is whether the FIA will listen to the words of not only the McLaren boss, but also the other stables, and whether they just want to sweep this under the carpet.

F1, Motorsport