Just when we thought it was safe to go back into the paddock following the rows over Red Bull breaking the Formula One cost cap in 2021, it appears the matter for some is not yet put to bed. Following being found in breach of the spending allowance the Milton Keynes outfit were fined $7,000,000 and given a 10% reduction in aero testing time.

Red Bull were declared in breach the day following the Japanese GP, yet the process agreed by the teams and the FIA to deal with such a transgression took another 17 days before both parties announced the agreed settlement.

 

 

Teams pressure the FIA decision

In that time Zak Brown had written to the FIA demanding any team in breach of the 2021 financial regulations receive a 25% reduction in aero testing and a reduction in the following seasons budget as punishment.

The actual Red Bull overspend breach after complicated adjustments for tax credits was eventually revealed to be under $500,000 which was just 0.37% over the cost cap limit.

Accordingly the governing body of Formula One issued the second largest fine in Formula One’s history, the reduction in aero testing time but no reduction in the teams spending limit for the following season.

The FIA had taken more than twice as long to audit the 10 teams 2021 figures than originally proposed. Their findings should have been revealed by June this season but were more than 3 months late.

 

 

Cost Cap rules agreed by the teams

All the teams agreed back in 2020 that any minor breach of the cost cap would then be resolved by an “Accepted Breach Agreement” (ABA) process whereby the team(s) in breach would explain the mitigating circumstances for their misdemeanour and a penalty would be proposed by the FIA and accepted by the team(s).

This process resulted in the announcement of Red Bull’s penalty during the run up to the Mexican GP.

However, the ABA must be enacted within 30 days of the announcement which sees Red Bull pay the fine and make a contractual commitment to the other aspects of the punishment.

Given the ABA may yet be enacted, it appears at least 1 team boss believes there is time for a stricter punishment to be administered by the FIA.

 

 

Steiner wants additional punishment for Red Bull

Guenther Steiner of Haas F1 now claims to RTL that the current punishment and fine “doesn’t hurt” Red Bull enough. He has called on the FIAfor Red Bull Racing to be stripped of this seasons maximum budget spending allowance.

“There are still opportunities to develop somewhere else, development hasn’t stopped,” observes Steiner. 

The reason for this is the teams are still spending their 2022 budget on developing their cars for next season.

“It was just moved to a different area for the vehicle: you can work on the weight, you can do so much with the money. Seven million dollars is a lot of money. But it doesn’t hurt them.”

“If you had said, for example: Next year you will have five million dollars less available than all other teams in the budget cap – I’ll name a number now, I don’t want to stick to it.” 

 

 

Too late to change the rules

There are two problems with the FIA now introducing budget restrictions on Red Bull for their 2022 spend.

There are just two races left this year and much of the development budget may already be committed to production and 3rd parties who develop technical solutions for Formula One teams.

Further, it was the teams who allowed for the ‘minor spend’ regulatory category to be set so high at $7.25m because they were worried that a few big crashes towards the end of the F1 calendar would force teams over the cost cap and de facto place them in breach.

Further, had the FIA reported in June as scheduled, at least a budget cut would only affect this seasons production. For context, Mercedes spent around $450,000 on four front wings to use in Austin which were deemed illegal.

 

 

Ferrari believe Red Bull can still benefit

Ferrari boss Laurent Mekies raised the issue that Red Bull would merely use the money saved from the reduced aero testing time to develop the car in other areas such as improved susopensio or weight reduction.

Yet again it was the teams when the financial regulations were being formed who insisted that a ‘minor breach’ accepted via the process of an ABA removed the option of a team being forced into taking a reduced budget for the following season.

However, the FIA did not have an option of reducing Red Bull’s future spending limit within the Accepted Breach Agreement the team signed up to. Mekies has warned this was a “weakness” and something which needed to change for future rule breakers.

Mekies believes this should be re-examined: “It is not something that was available to the FIA if they were going down the route of the ABA. This is unfortunately one of the weaknesses of the regulations that they have written, and yes, I think it probably needs to be reviewed in the future.”

 

 

No budget cut regulated for a ‘minor breach’

However, realistically the Formula One financial regulations can now only be re-written for 2024 given it would take unanimous agreement from the teams.

The FIA can only change the rules for the following season in a unilateral fashion on the grounds of “safety”. This was done to ensure the drivers were not suffering sustained injuries from the extreme bouncing early this year. 

A Technical Directive came into force at the Belgium GP for the teams to modify their floors in an effort to stop them experiencing high vertical G Forces from porpoising or bouncing.

In conclusion the Formula One financial regulations and penalties were formulated via a working party which included bot the FIA and the teams. Complaining they are badly written and need to be modified merely reflects badly on all concerned.

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"He was on fire this weekend" 🔥

Jenson Button heaps praise onto Daniel Ricciardo's #MexicoCityGP race! pic.twitter.com/c0X9rmtt68

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) October 31, 2022