Red Bull got a fair punishment, says FIA president. Some teams wanted to hang them, see the blood

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Mohammed Ben Sulayem says Red Bull received a fair punishment for exceeding the budget cap, even though some teams called for a much harsher penalty.

The FIA released an official document on budget caps in October this year, making it clear that the Red Bull Racing team had broken the rule. Specifically, the FIA released the budget cap report on Monday, October 10.

The outcome was then clear, although in this case it was a minor infraction – i.e. exceeding the cap by less than $5 million.

As punishment, Red Bull was fined seven million dollars by the FIA and had its wind tunnel time reduced by 10 percent.

Indeed, many of Red Bull’s rivals wanted stiffer penalties, but Ben Sulayem thinks the FIA did the right thing, especially given that the cost-capping rules are still in their infancy.

Statement from the FIA President

“We have learnt a lot and a big revision is on the way. If you look at the other teams, they will say we have been too nice to them. And the punishment? Some of them want to hang them and see blood. And the guilty teams themselves see it as you being too hard on them,” explained Ben Sulayem in an interview with Motorsport.

The biggest punishments, of course, were demanded by representatives of the next two strongest teams, namely Ferrari and Mercedes. Specifically, their bosses Mattia Binotto and Toto Wolff. McLaren boss Zak Brown was also quite clear about Red Bull.

According to the aforementioned Motorsport website, the FIA president then wants to improve the timing of the budget cap investigation. Dragging this out until the end of the year is not ideal in his opinion.

“The only thing I would say is that what we did in September/October should have been done earlier. But we have learnt a lot of lessons for the first year. And we are still learning. So it is better to come up with the investigation in May, not in October,” Ben Sulayem was heard to say.

He concluded by adding that they are considering further recruitment of staff to help monitor financial regulation, including budget caps.

Sources