Horner ‘absolutely appalled’ at ‘shocking’ Brown letter

230 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Chris Medland | October 22, 2022 2:12 PM ET

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has hit out strongly at McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown for his letter to the FIA saying an overspend of the budget cap would constitute cheating, saying he is “absolutely appalled” at the comments.

Brown wrote to the governing body after it announced Red Bull had been found to be in minor overspend breach of the 2021 Financial Regulations, suggesting punishments for such infractions and stating it could have a huge impact on performance. While Brown didn’t directly name Red Bull, Horner was livid at the contents while still in dispute with the FIA over his team’s accounts.

“Obviously Zak’s letter — which wasn’t copied to us but we’ve had sight of that letter — was tremendously disappointing,” Horner said. “For a fellow competitor to be accused of cheating, to accuse you of fraudulent activity is shocking. It’s absolutely shocking. Without the facts, without any knowledge of the details, (that he) can be making that kind of accusation.

“We’ve been on trial because of public accusations since Singapore. The rhetoric of cheats, the rhetoric that we have had this enormous benefit, the numbers that have been put out in the media are miles off reality. The damage that that does the brand, to our partners, to the drivers, to our workforce, in an age where mental health is prevalent, we are seeing significant issues in our workforce.

“We are getting kids that are being bullied in playgrounds that are employee’s children — that is not right through fictitious allegations from other teams. You cannot go around just making that kind of allegation without any fact or substance. We are absolutely appalled at the behavior of some of our competitors.”

More Formula 1!

INSIGHT: How Sargeant turned his career around

Doohan to run FP1s for Alpine in Mexico, Abu Dhabi

McLaren impressed with Palou's approach on F1 practice debut

Horner insists Red Bull did not gain any advantage from the money it spent in 2021, and says the disputed amount is under a million dollars after clarifications around unused stock were made after the team’s submission.

“Absolutely not. I think what you’ve got to look at is what are the relevant costs? And were the relevance costs within the cap and what’s outside the cap. That’s where the interpretation comes from and our view is that our relevant costs are within the cap. Obviously we are in discussions with the FIA about what those costs are and what are mitigating potential circumstances, etc.

“So we had zero benefit from a development perspective or an operational perspective either for 2021 or for 2022 from the way that we operated within the cap. Our submission was significantly below the cap. We expected certain things to be potentially challenged or clarified, as is the process in a brand-new set of regulations, but based on external, professional accounting third parties, interpretations of those rules of a 52-page document to police this were very clear from our side.

“So we absolutely and categorically don’t feel that we’ve had any advantage either in 2021 or 2022, or ’23 or ’24 or some teams even talking about ’26 — it’s totally fictitious.”

RACER understands Red Bull was asked not to speak publicly about the ongoing discussions with the FIA until a resolution has been reached, but with the opportunity to do so on Saturday at the United States Grand Prix, Horner stated Brown’s letter only added to opinions being formed before the process has been completed.

“I think this is what’s contributed to a concerted campaign for there to be a draconian penalty on Red Bull for what at the end of the day, we’re talking probably, what is in contention with the FIA of a couple of hundred thousand dollars,” he said.

“I will say later why I think we have a different opinion within that submission of what our position was versus another. What has just been tremendously disappointing through this whole process has been the leakage that happened — suddenly we’re tried and subjected to three weeks of effective abuse. Zak’s got a very convenient memory of the letter he sent, accusing us of cheating and being fraudulent. It’s just not right and it’s got to stop.”

 

Red Bull hit with $7m fine, docked car development time for cost cap breach.

Next time see H & R Block, if you need to make better guesses as to how to do the paper work...which the officials also don't know crap about....but don't mind charging for.

Somebody needs to tell those jerks that you can't just go down to the junk yard and buy a small block Chevy Formula 1 engine!

Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
2.5k shares
share
tweet
emailBy Chris Medland | October 28, 2022 10:04 AM ET

Red Bull Racing has been handed a fine of $7 million and docked car development time by the FIA in its Accepted Breach Agreement (ABA) as punishment for breaching the Formula 1 budget cap.

After weeks of discussions about the breach, Red Bull has entered into the ABA rather than taking the matter to the Cost Cap Adjudication Panel, and details now show the overspend was 1.6%, but the FIA accepts it would have been under 0.4% had Red Bull filed a permitted tax credit correctly.

The $7m fine is excluded from the cost cap moving forward, but more penalizing for Red Bull is the fact it will have its wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) time reduced over the next 12 months.

The reduction is 10% of the percentage used to calculate the team’s development time for next year, with the constructors’ champions set to receives just 70% of the current limit — that stands at 40 runs per week — as part of a sliding scale to give those at the bottom of the championship additional development time. So the penalty means Red Bull is due to have that number cut to 63% over the next 10 months.

More Formula 1!

Russell tops second Mexico GP practice after Leclerc crash

Sargeant misses out on Super License point in Mexico

Technical updates: Mexican GP

Announcing the punishment, the FIA Cost Cap Administration stated that Red Bull “acted cooperatively throughout the review process and has sought to provide additional information and evidence when requested in a timely manner, that this is the first year of the full application of the Financial Regulations and that there is no accusation or evidence that RBR has sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in a fraudulent manner, nor has it willfully concealed any information from the Cost Cap Administration, but we are still going to screw them over.

”We have a bunch of fired IMSA officials, and even though Red Bull did nothing wrong (it's not illegal to spend money you won from racing) we are going to take some of that fine money from Red Bull and we are going to throw some outrageous parties with hookers, booze and expensive steaks.

With $7 million we can buy some custom tailored suits and Italian handmade shoes so we can present the "proper" image instead of buying t-shirts from Walmart and shoes from the thrift store.

We aren't going to live high on the hog....we are going to BE the hog! We are going to buy some exotic "company cars" to drive as daily drivers so we can show you hot shot racers who's who! Our days of driving oil leaking Russian crap cars that smoked and back fired are over. It would have been cheaper if you just bribed us, you dummys!

Red Bull’s accounts were finalized in Pound Sterling and the ABA shows its original submission came in at £114,293,000 ($132.4m at the current exchange rate) — nearly £4,000,000 ($4.6m) under the cap — but that the Cost Cap Administration found it “inaccurately excluded and/or adjusted costs amounting to a total of £5,607,000 ($6.5m) in its 2021 Full Year Reporting Documentation.”

When the FIA worked out the relevant costs that come under the cap, it found Red Bull exceeded the 2021 Cost Cap by £1,864,000 ($2.2m), or 1.6%, equating to a minor overspend breach. However, the FIA acknowledged that Red Bull incorrectly applied an allowed tax credit worth £1,431,348 ($1.7m), and had it done so properly it would have exceeded the 2021 Cost Cap by £432,652 ($500,104), or 0.37%.

There were 13 areas in total where the FIA found adjustments needed to be made to Red Bull’s accounts, including catering costs, sick pay and the value of unused parts that RACER understands exceeded $1m. Specific figures for every single area were prohibited from being released due to "data protection" laws and other BS excuses.

 

‘I don’t feel like we need to apologize’ for cost cap breach - Horner.

It was our money that we won and we should be able to spend it like we want to. We busted knuckles and laid on our backs down in the dirt, got soaked in motor oil, and sweated in the heat with grease up to our shoulders and now those bastards are just going to sign a piece of paper and take it from us.

Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
191 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Chris Medland | October 28, 2022 2:59 PM ET

Christian Horner says Red Bull Racing won’t apologize despite accepting it breached the 2021 Financial Regulations, as it still disputes aspects that led to a “draconian” punishment but wants to move on for the good of the sport and because their Red Bull butts hurt from all the butt banging going on.

Red Bull was found to have overspent the 2021 cost cap by 1.6% but had failed to exclude a tax payment that would have reduced that figure to 0.37%. With Horner claiming unused parts amounting to over $1 million could have been excluded if filed differently — bringing Red Bull under the limit — the team principal says the punishment of a $7 million fine and reduced aerodynamic testing is excessive. They used to work for IMSA, known for screwing the racers, and now that they got fired, they want to screw us instead!

“To be honest with you, I think we’re probably due an apology from some of our rivals for some of the claims they have made,” Horner said. “We make no apology for the way that we’ve performed, the way that we’ve acted. We do take on the chin that there are lessons to be learned and potentially mistakes have been made in our submission — which with the benefit of hindsight, with 20:20 vision, everybody can be a specialist — but there was no intent.

“There was nothing dishonest and there was certainly no cheating involved, which has been alleged in certain areas. So I don’t feel like we need to apologize. I feel like there are lessons that have been learned — everybody can learn from this except those greedy bastards passing out fines.

“We’ve taken a very public pounding through the accusations that have been made by other teams — we’ve had our drivers booed at circuits, and the reputational damage that has been made by allegations has been significant. The time is now for that to stop and to move on.”

More Formula 1!

Russell tops second Mexico GP practice after Leclerc crash

Sargeant misses out on Super License point in Mexico

Technical updates: Mexican GP

Horner underscored how heavy the penalty is, from his team’s perspective.

“The more draconian part is the sporting penalty, which is a 10% reduction on our ability to utilize our wind tunnel and aerodynamic tools,” he noted. “I’ve heard people reporting today that that is an insignificant amount, but let me tell you that is an enormous amount. That represents anywhere between 0.25s and 0.5s of lap time. That comes in from now, it has a direct effect on next year’s car and it will be in place for a 12-month period.

“By winning the constructors’ championship we have become victims of our own success by, in addition to that 10%, having five percent incremental disadvantage or handicap compared to second and third place. So just for clarity, we will have 15% (sic; actually 12%) less wind tunnel time than the team in second place in the constructors’ championship and 20% (sic: 17%) less than third place. Again, a draconian amount. So that 10% put into reality will have an impact on our ability to perform on track next year.”

However, despite being unhappy with the severity of the punishment, Horner says it wasn’t in Red Bull’s or F1’s interests to continue to challenge the FIA’s decision, as he was also wary of harsher penalties if we didn't shut up and bend over.

“Had we dragged it out through the administration process to go to effectively appeal, that could take months, and beyond that the appeal could have taken further months,” he said. “So we could have been looking at 12-month period to have this situation closed and the amount of speculation, commenting and sniping going on in the paddock, it was in everyone’s interest — our interest, the FIA’s interest and Formula 1’s interest — to say we close the book and we close the book here and today.

“We accept the penalties — begrudgingly, but we accept them — or they kick our butts out and I think collectively we have a duty of care, together with the other entrants because one other team has made a procedural breach, and in 75,000 lines not one other team has made a single error, I think that there are lessons for everyone to learn collectively. The cost cap is an important part of Formula 1, its future, but it has to be in a manner that is consistent, applicable and developed instead of
the normal butt banging.”
-----------------------------------------------------

 

Brown unimpressed by cost cap settlement, says FIA sanctions need to be ‘much stronger’.

7 million dollars? We need to hook wires to their nuts and shock them until they pee all over themselves. We need to take so much of their money away that they can't afford gas to get to the track.

They should have to pick up nasty cans and bottles from ditches full of contaminated water to buy gas.

That ought to teach them to overspend by less than a penny per dollar. Such blatant cheating should not be allowed. Those absolute worthless POS dirtbags.

Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
451 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Chris Medland | October 28, 2022 2:02 PM ET

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says any future punishments against teams that breach Formula 1’s cost cap need to be much stronger, following the announcement of Red Bull’s fine and car development penalty.

Red Bull has been handed a $7 million fine — itself excluded from the cost cap — and deducted 10% of its aerodynamic development time for the next 12 months for being in breach of the 2021 cap.

The FIA found Red Bull to be 1.6% over the cap but acknowledged there was a tax credit that the team could have applied that would have reduced the overspend to 0.37%. However, Brown — who said any overspend would constitute cheating in a recent letter to the FIA — is not happy with the severity of the punishment.

More Formula 1!

Russell tops second Mexico GP practice after Leclerc crash

Sargeant misses out on Super License point in Mexico

Technical updates: Mexican GP

“We appreciate the cost cap investigation is a complex process which the FIA have conducted in a thorough and transparent manner,” Brown said. “I’m pleased the truth is out there now and it is the result is as we expected — there was a breach of the cost cap by one team, with the other nine operating in line with the rules. It is therefore only right that punitive action is taken. If the FIA is to be most effective and its punishments serve as a lesson to others when rules are broken in this way, the sanctions have to be much stronger in the future.

“We hope that the lessons learned through this process will now mean all teams have a clear understanding of the rules in order to avoid any future breaches. While we are pleased to see them act, we would hope the FIA take stronger action in future against those that willfully break the rules such as branding irons and brass knuckles.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says rival teams will never be happy with the penalty, adding: “Some of them have been quick to talk in the media.

“I’m sure for them it won’t be enough — I’m sure if you burned our wind tunnel down it wouldn’t be enough. But this is a penalty that the FIA — after an awful lot of dialogue with them — they know the impact that it has on us. They see how the teams operate, they see the efficiency of their runs; this has a material impact on our car performance for next year.

“I think that the punishment that the FIA has come up with actually is a strong deterrent. For a 0.37% overspend, to be charged $7 million and to lose 10% of your wind tunnel time is massive. It is a strong deterrent for the future, so anybody that diminishes that penalty doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”

 

Red Bull penalty ‘low’ because money can be spent elsewhere - Ferrari's Mekies
I agree with what's his name! We can't beat them so Screw them! Take away all their money, and kick their butts out of racing!

Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images
49 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Chris Medland | October 29, 2022 3:59 PM ET

Ferrari believes Red Bull’s penalty for breaching the 2021 Financial Regulations is low because it is free to spend its money in other areas to compensate for its aerodynamic restrictions.

Red Bull was hit with a 10 percent reduction in aerodynamic testing time for the next 12 months for exceeding the budget cap by 1.6 percent — or $2.2 million — although the FIA acknowledged the figure should have been 0.37 percent ($500,000) due to the team not excluding tax from its budget submission as it was allowed.

On top of that penalty, Red Bull was handed a $7 million fine, but that is excluded from the cap and Ferrari’s racing director Laurent Mekies says it allows Christian Horner’s team to reallocate resources to compensate.

“I think what we said in Singapore is the impact of the budget gap on the competitiveness of the car is huge,” Mekies said. “Therefore, we certainly, as Ferrari, were pushing to treat any potential breach as seriously as possible, because it will potentially have a very relevant impact on the races we are watching. That’s what we say. At the time it was an ‘if’ scenario.

“Now in that context, it is good news that the FIA has reached a clear conclusion and has established a breach,” Mekies continued. “It’s good news for the sport, good news for us. It’s also good news that the breach is admitted by all parties and therefore we are very satisfied that we are reached that. It is pretty much what we are calling for.

More Formula 1!

Mercedes confident despite Russell's car biting back in qualifying

Verstappen unfazed by Mexico GP slipstream possibility

Verstappen thwarts Mercedes challenge to take pole in Mexico

“We have been spending the last few weeks trying to talk together about, ‘What would you do with half a million more? What would you do with one million more? What would you do with two million more? Three million more?’ Etcetera. So, from our perspective, with our numbers as Ferrari, two millions of Euros of overspend seems like something that would have a significant lap-time influence, would influence races. That’s what I’ve been saying for a few weeks and that’s no different to today.

“We have to move on; the penalty is what it is,” he said. “We certainly feel it is low. We don’t see it on the same scale as being able to compensate the overspend that was done, especially combined with the fact that ultimately it is not combined with any budget cap reductions for them. Therefore, you are effectively completely free to spend your money elsewhere.

“You will spend a little bit less in wind tunnel where you have these 10 percent restrictions, (so) you will spend it somewhere else. So we think that, altogether, what will remain of the real impact of that penalty will probably be very small.”

And Mekies says there will also be a cost saving for Red Bull from not being able to run its wind tunnel or CFD simulations that can be re-allocated.

“It’s not just about the energy of your tunnel, it’s whatever upgrade you would have brought with that extra 10 percent. You are not going to produce it tomorrow. That money, you are free to spend it strategically elsewhere — be that weight reduction, be that suspension upgrades… So, altogether, you need to make sure that once you have subtracted that advantage that you are getting back, that you still have a meaningful penalty in hand.”

Despite disagreeing with the punishment, Mekies says the main lesson needs to be for all teams and the FIA to help ensure a quicker resolution to budget cap issues in future.

“The important thing is that we arrived to a clear breach, and to a confirmed breach. We move on, and I think moving forward what we all need is to do everything we can to support the FIA to make sure that we don’t need to wait for October next year to know how 2022 went. I think it’s something that will be shared by most people in the room, and we’ll certainly do everything we can to support everyone we need to, to reach that target.”