Panicky Christian Horner complains against the F1 cost cap, claims it is paralyzing Red Bull
Christian Horner has addressed the "paralyzing effect" that is holding Red Bull back from offering more money to their staff to retain them.
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Red Bull Racing are the current leaders in the hard-fought Formula 1 battle, with their star driver Max Verstappen perched atop the Drivers’ World rankings with a total of 170 points and 5 whopping race wins. Thanks to their incredible performances at almost all the Grands Prix, the Milton-Keynes-based outfit has no dearth of big-money sponsors. Yet, Red Bull is restricted by the rules of the FIA, the governing body of F1, that compel them to keep a count on every dollar that they spend for their growth.
The success of a Formula 1 team is, in a major part, because of the research and development that goes into making the cars. Despite their recent overwhelming success at the racetracks, Red Bull have lost some key personnel from their staff to other rivals who offered them more competitive salaries. And even though RBR has the resources to retain their executives with good pay packages, their hands are tied by the F1 cost cap which prohibits them from spending too much money on their staff.
In 2021, Red Bull were already booked for going over the budget once, and now, Christian Horner wants to stay wary to prevent another million-dollar penalty coming their way. Still, he complained of the unfairness of the cost cap which has made them lose some of their best team members, saying, “We’ve had redundancies through the cap. Jayne Poole [former COO, now working as a special advisor for Mercedes] was one of those as well. She was a redundancy that we made because we couldn’t justify the role within the cap.”
Related: Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur voices frustration with underwhelming SF-23 upgrades
Christian Horner does not blame Rob Marshall for migrating to McLaren
Earlier this week, news broke out that Robert Marshall, a top engineer at Red Bull, was leaving the team after 17 long years of service. In 2024, the Briton will be seen in his new role as the F1 Technical Director for McLaren. While commenting on losing another key personnel after COO Jayne Poole’s exit from the team, Christian Horner said, “Rob was focused on other projects in recent years, and the offer that McLaren made is probably half their [cost] cap! So you can’t blame him for wanting to go and do that.”
Having made such a key acquisition, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella is overjoyed that Rob Marshall will be joining them from next year. He has commented that the top F1 engineer will be “instrumental” in taking McLaren to the top with his vast knowledge of all things related to the Formula 1 racecar. But currently, McLaren do not look to be in a good position with a 6th-place standing in the points table with only 17 points to their name.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)