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Yesterday, the FIA officially announced the penalty that Red Bull will receive for exceeding the budget. Faced with such news, several Formula 1 teams believe that it was not fair, and hope that in the future there will be sanctions based on the offense committed.
Red Bull is to blame
After several weeks of negotiations, the FIA announced an agreement between the FIA and Red Bull on its sanction for exceeding the budget limit for 2021. Such a sanction would force them to pay energy drinks a total of $7 million, plus a 10% reduction in the team’s aerodynamic testing.
This penalty did not go down well with everyone in the Formula 1 paddock, as there are those who have spoken out assuring that the penalty Red Bull will have to pay is not commensurate with the offense they committed.
Ferrari believes that Red Bull will not be badly affected
During the broadcast of Free Practice 2 in Mexico, Marc Gené spoke to the DAZN F1 microphones assuring that the feeling from Maranello was unpleasant because the penalty was minimal. Laurent Mekies, Ferrari’s engineer, commented as much, ensuring that this sanction will have no real impact on Ferrari’s performance.
“Like a Ferrari, we cannot understand how a 10% reduction in time can correspond to the same amount of lap time“said Mekies on Sky Italia.
“There’s an additional problem, which is that since the penalty doesn’t involve a reduction in the budget cap, it essentially forces the team to spend money elsewhere. They have complete freedom to use the money they won’t spend on the 10% wind tunnel and CFD reduction, for example, to reduce the weight of the car or who knows what.”continues Ferrari.
“We are concerned that the sanction will have very limited real impact due to the combination of these two factors”.
This offense hurts Formula 1
On the other hand, Andreas Seidl, head of the McLaren team, also spoke about this situation. Woking residents assure that the sanction is not adjusted to the violation, and that already at the beginning of the season, when this year’s budget ceiling was modified, it was clearly stated that this type of violation harms Formula 1, so they hope for bigger fines in the future.
“It’s good to see that the FIA has done a good job with the audits. Nine teams did well and one got a foul, so that’s fine.”Seidl said on Sky Sports. “It is bad, from my point of view, that the sanction is not aligned with the offense. I hope that in the future we will have more severe punishments.”.
“We talked about it at the beginning of the year with the teams, the FIA and Formula 1. That’s why the budget ceiling was adjusted, and it was made clear that it does not benefit the sport to have fouls at the end of the season“adds Andreas.
“I just hope that if the offense happens again this year, I will receive an appropriate punishment”they concluded from McLaren.
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