“Red Bull could have exceeded 10 million dollars,” says Andreas Haupt as Team Principals give their take on the situation
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Red Bull Racing's RB18
Red Bull Racing has been the talk of the paddock all weekend long and it isn’t due to Max Verstappen possibly winning his second world championship title. Fans and teams alike have been commenting on the situation criticising the team for their alleged mishaps. Previously the amount was thought to be 5 million dollars although recent rumours have suggested that the actual figure is double that of the previous one.
Red Bull Racing won last year’s drivers’ championship with Max Verstappen and managed to finish second in the team’s championship behind Mercedes. After putting a valiant effort in 2021, the team’s prep for 2022 wasn’t compromised and it can clearly be seen in their results. The team is on course to secure both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship this season with a massive and untouchable lead in both the standings.
Although the rumours say that the team has been doing so by allegedly gaining an unfair advantage and exceeding the spending limit. This according to many in the paddock could “cause an earthquake” among the other teams. Teams will argue that the Energy drinks manufacturer got an unfair advantage and will push for disqualification or dockage of points. Here is what Alfa Romeo team boss Fred Vasseur had to say about it.
“That amount could employ 100 engineer,” Fred Vasseur on Red Bull’s cost cap shenanigans for the 2021 F1 season
The Alfa Romeo team principal further gave his thoughts on the situation. “That amount could employ 100 engineers for $100,000. That would inevitably increase the output of the development department. Ten million…many teams don’t even have that much budget for mid-season upgrades. We only have 2.4 million to develop our car during the year,” he said.
“You can be disqualified from a race for 0.9 millimetres of front flap deflection, as we were two years ago,” he told Motorsport.com. “[And] if you are 300 grams under the weight, you are excluded. On the other hand, if you can spend millions for updates for X races, it’s completely unfair,” he said.
“If something like this happened, for sure the FIA will have to take action. You have to understand that sometimes with €200,000 you can bring a big update. And if you overshoot the budget by this, it’s a couple of tenths for more than one race,” he concluded.
With the FIA being questioned, even more, all speculations will end next week when the details will finally be revealed. Till then the whole situation is based on mere rumours which have hurt Red Bull’s image. The team has confirmed that they are thinking about suing those constructors involved in badmouthing the team in the media over unconfirmed speculations.
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Varad Joshi
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