The Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, issued a scathing attack on criticism from competitors after the FIA announced his team had breached the Formula One budget cap. Addressing a letter written last week by the McLaren principal, Zak Brown, describing any breach of the cap as “cheating”, Horner said the accusations made against the team had even led to the children of employees being bullied.
Horner was speaking publicly for the first time since the FIA announced Red Bull had been in breach of the budget cap for 2021. The FIA decision was revealed only a day after Max Verstappen secured his second F1 championship at the Japanese GP two weeks ago.
In Austin for this weekend’s today’s US Grand Prix Red Bull’s breach overshadowed events on the track. Horner continued to make the case that his team had met the cap according to their interpretation of the regulations but, sitting alongside Brown at the press conference, he was furious with his fellow team principal.
“It’s tremendously disappointing for a fellow competitor to accuse you of cheating. To accuse you of fraudulent activity is shocking, without the facts, without any knowledge of the detail,” he said.
“We have been on trial because of public accusations since Singapore. The rhetoric of ‘cheats’, the rhetoric that we have this enormous benefit. The damage that does to the brand, to our partners, to our drivers, to our workforce. In an age where mental health is prevalent we are seeing significant issues within our workforce. We are getting kids that are employees’ children bullied in playgrounds. That’s not right through fictitious allegations from other teams. You cannot go around making those kinds of allegations without any fact or substance. We are appalled at the behaviour of some of our competitors.”
Brown responded by insisting he was making the case for the budget cap to be policed and enforced correctly. “My letter set out if a team spends more than the cap they are going to get an advantage,” he said. “The cap is a rule, no different than the technical rules in the sport. My letter was [saying] if someone has [overspent], here are some of the things that should be addressed. I didn’t mention any teams, it was a general response.”
The cap for 2021 was set at £114m and it is believed Red Bull exceeded it by £1.8m. The team maintain they were within the limit on their original submission but that subsequent clarifications of the regulations then pushed them over, with Horner noting in Austin that one such clarification amounted to a “seven-digit” difference.
Horner confirmed he is in discussions with the FIA after being invited to enter what is known as an “accepted breach agreement”. Agreeing to this would be conceding they did indeed breach the cap but would ensure the potential penalties were less serious. He is due to meet the FIA president, Mohammed ben Sulayem, this weekend and confirmed discussions were ongoing but also noted that the disagreement could yet be taken further to the cost cap administration panel and then possibly on to the court of arbitration.
Competitors have also pointed out that any overspend could have had a significant performance advantage for Red Bull over several years, a charge bullishly refuted by Horner. “Absolutely not,” he said. “We had zero benefit from a development or operational perspective for 2021 or for 2022 from the way we operated within the cap. Our submission was significantly below the cap.”
It is believed Red Bull’s argument is that the overspend was not performance-related but rather in areas such as parts produced for historical vehicles, unused spare parts for current cars, catering, sick pay and gardening leave.
Williams announced on Saturday that the US driver Logan Sargeant will race for them next season if he reaches the required super licence points. The 21-year-old would become the first American to compete in F1 since Alexander Rossi in 2015 and will replace the outgoing driver, Nicholas Latifi. Sargeant needs 40 points on his super licence. He is on 28 and could get 30 from taking part in the Friday practice sessions at Mexico and Abu Dhabi GPs.
