‘Two million is a significant amount’ Ferrari unhappy with the FIA’s lenient budget cap breach penalty for Red Bull
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Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies
Yesterday, Red Bull’s penalty was finally confirmed: They were fined $7 million, and their aero development time was reduced by 10 percent. The breach amounts to about $2.2 million, or about 1.6 percent over the $145 million cost cap, but it would have been just 0.37% had Red Bull not made an error in filing their taxes.
The aero development time reduction in particular quite significant, even though earlier rumours suggest it might have been reduced by up to 25 percent. Christian Horner called the penalty ‘draconian’, while Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and McLaren’s Andreas Seidl have both made their displeasure clear, and consider the penalty to be too lenient. Ferrari’s race director Laurent Mekies also thinks the penalty is not enough.
Speaking to Sky Italia, Mekies praised the FIA for its transparency, but also made it clear that Ferrari weren’t happy with extent of the penalty itself: “We have talked a lot in recent weeks about what one can do with half a million more, or a million or two or three. Two million [euros] is a significant amount and we have given our opinion several times on this topic.”
The Frenchman stated that this amount of overspend can even have an impact on a championship battle: “We at Ferrari think that this amount is worth around a couple of tenths [per lap] and so it’s easy to understand that these figures can have a real impact on the outcome of the races, and maybe even a championship.”
Ferrari fear the sanction won’t have much effect
Speaking on behalf of Ferrari, Laurent Mekies explained that the team do not feel that the reduction in aerodynamic testing time will be enough to compensate for what they may have gained from the overspending, and secondly, they were unhappy with the fact that their budget cap was not reduced.
He said (translated): “We can never be happy with the penalty. We do not understand how 10% of reduction corresponds to two-tenths of advantage, moreover there has been no reduction in budget cap. They will be able to spend it elsewhere, improving the machine. This combination makes us fear that the real effect of the sanction is small. But now we have to turn the page, we hope we won’t have to wait so long for the 2022 budget cap [results].”
While some may have been hoping for even harsher penalties, such as disqualification from the championship, or exclusion from this year’s championship, that was never viable, as it was only a ‘minor breach’. As for how much effect the reduced aerodynamic testing will have on Red Bull’s pace next year, we shall find out in due course.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)