The FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) announced the results of its financial audit on Monday, October 10th. Red Bull and Aston Martin have announced that they have violated F1 budget cap rules for 2021. However, the penalties are still under consideration.
After intense speculation since the F1 Singapore Grand Prix that two teams, Red Bull and Aston Martin, have been found to have spent around $145 million over the budget cap in 2021, the FIA announced its findings on Monday. was officially announced.
The FIA said in a statement that certificates of compliance had been issued to all F1 teams except Red Bull, Aston Martin and Williams.
Williams’ offense is related to late filing of files last year, for which he has already been fined. Aston Martin committed procedural rule violations rather than monetary overruns, while Red Bull committed both procedural and minor overspending violations.
No details have been released on how the FIA will handle Aston Martin and Red Bull’s rule violations.
“Currently, the FIA Cost Cap Administration is determining the appropriate action to be taken under the financial rules regarding Aston Martin and Red Bull and further information will be communicated in accordance with the rules.”
Red Bull was confident that its financial report last March was well below the budget cap.
Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner said at the weekend of the Singapore Grand Prix that he believed his team had fully complied with the rules.
“I have absolute confidence in my submission,” said Christian Horner.
“It’s been through the process. It was in March in that it was fully approved by our auditors, one of the big three, and I believe we are comfortably within the cap.”
“So the FIA is following their process and hopefully this week all the teams, not just us, will hear the outcome of that process.”
F1’s regulations offer a range of options for penalizing teams for violating cost caps.
For minor offenses of less than 5% overspending, public reprimand may be the penalty, but for major offenses deduction of constructor or driver championship points, exclusion from events, aerodynamics. May include testing limits or fines.
Red Bull’s overspending has prompted scrutiny over how the FIA will deal with the issue, with several teams suggesting it might be a test case for the success of the budget cap.
Given that the budget cap regulation is new and everyone is trying to figure it out at this stage, it might be seen as unfair if the FIA chooses a tougher penalty for Red Bull.
However, if the FIA is too lenient, rival teams may feel they no longer need to adhere to spending limits.
Ferrari F1 team principal Mattia Binotto said on Sunday in Japan that he believes the FIA would be better off being too strict than trying to cover up the issue.
“The important thing for us is whatever the violation, if there is a violation, the penalty must be serious because today our car in Japan fought for the best position.” Mattia Binotto said.
“These are cars that have been developed while respecting and maintaining the budget cap itself, knowing how much it means from a performance standpoint, even if it’s a small violation.”
“I said $5 million is regarding 0.5 seconds, but even 1 million or 2 million is 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. It means to
“Obviously that’s for 2021 and from 2021 it’s an advantage to be gained in the next season. What we need and expect is full transparency and clarity in any discussion that may have arisen. I think it’s
