Helmut Marko talked about the budget ceilings and the FIA leaks. He suspects a former Mercedes advisor

The saga of the budget caps is not over even after the official punishment of Red Bull. Helmut Marko pointed to the fact that some teams got the information about the ceiling breach before others.

The whole Red Bull scandal was supposed to end this weekend during the Mexican GP. The Austrian stable signed a plea bargain with the FIA and accepted a $7 million fine and a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time.

But of course Helmut Marko did not let his team be the only target of the FIA investigation. He didn’t like the fact that the F1 paddock knew the results of the investigation before it was officially over.

The first mention of any team’s budget exceeding $145 million came before the Singapore VC, more than a week before the FIA report was officially released.

According to Mark, Shaila-Ann Rao, a former Mercedes advisor who was in charge of budget caps at the FIA this year, was behind the leak.

“It’s strange. A Mercedes employee worked on the documents regarding the budget caps and then was responsible for checking them at the FIA. In our view, there is at least a hint of a conflict of interest and it doesn’t reflect well on the whole situation,” RacingNews365 quoted Mark as saying.

Marko also commented on the punishment for Red Bull, which he said was too harsh. “Because it was the first year of the budget caps, the punishment was too draconian. Of course, it was also influenced by pressure from other teams.“

But the 97-year-old Austrian believes Red Bull will not be in the same situation again. He says he is hiring more and more accountants to give him real security.

Source: RacingNews365