Red Bull has already broken the F1 budget cap once, and they have no intention of doing so again, especially since Christian Horner believes the consequences of their previous penalty may not yet be fully felt.
Christian Horner maintains that his Red Bull team might not have fully felt the consequences of its fine for violating the Formula 1 budget cap regulations.
A year ago, the 2021 season’s overspending was first made public. The FIA fined £6 million for what it considered to be a “minor” rule violation, but the more significant punishment was that the team lost 10% of their wind tunnel testing time for the next 12 months.
At the time, team principal Horner described that punishment as “draconian” and insisted it would have a significant effect. If there has been any impact, it hasn’t been seen in 2023, considering Red Bull won both titles with almost no opposition.
Although the team’s reduced wind tunnel time is now coming to an end, Horner notes that the full effect of the penalty might not be felt until the following season because the team has been devoting a significant portion of its resources, particularly in recent months, to developing its 2024 machine.
He told reporters, “Obviously, it has compromised the amount of development that we’ve been able to do this year. You haven’t seen the full impact yet.”
“Thankfully, we came out with a very strong car at the beginning of the year and we’ve been able to apply most of that development time from quite early in the season to next year’s car, so that’s been important.”
Given that breach from the 2021 season, there was added interest as the FIA analysed every team’s accounts from 2022 over whether the rules would be broken again. This time, though, all 10 teams were compliant with the rules.
And that, Horner went on to add, was after an even more rigorous process than his team had experienced the year before. He said: “I think the process of the cost cap is evolving. It’s a very complex set of regulations that have evolved and the degree of scrutiny this year was phenomenal, in terms of the rigour that the FIA went to – it was a full colonoscopy that we experienced during the summer.
“I believe that the FIA is also picking up tips from them, and the regulations have changed. Additionally, each company has a slightly different structure, which contributes to the complexity. For instance, your reporting group and subsidiary accounts play a role in this.
“It’s a very complicated set of regulations, but based on what we’ve seen over the past 12 months, I think the FIA has done a pretty decent job.”
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