Martin Brundle rubbished the idea that an overspend of several million points could still be regarded as a "minor" breach of Formula 1 cost cap rules.
That was the wording the FIA used last week when they accused Red Bull of having overspent in the 2021 season – a claim the team has denied. Under the current legislation, a "minor" breach is could constitute anything up to five per cent over the cap.
But that could be anything up to £5million or £6m which is, of course, not an insignificant amount of cash. That is why Brundle thinks the rules need to be rewritten so that a potential overspend of millions cannot be referred to as a "minor" breach.
"It's a mess all around because we're talking about 2021 of course, not this season," the pundit said on Sky Sports. "We've got some hearsay, we don't have any facts as to how much have overspent, what it means, what the penalty [for Red Bull] could be.
"It's described as a minor breach if it's up to seven million dollars. Clearly the regulations are not right, they've got to be changed because most teams will tell you that's a season-long development budget. The terminology, a minor breach, suggests that it wasn't of great gravity. Clearly it is, Red Bull are very sensitive about it.
"They say 'we think we were under, they think we were over, we want to explain why'. But everyone's gone to ground because the process dictates that. It's just bad for F1 to have this hanging over us. Here we are at a magnificent event again, four in five weeks and we're talking about finances from last season.
"We all want to know, put it to bed and we'll see what the penalties are – we have to assume there are negotiations going on behind the scenes, a lot at the moment. [The rule] is there because we needed to stop the teams spending themselves to oblivion. It's a really good tool that F1 has put together, one of the cornerstones of what we're now doing in F1 to save the teams from themselves."
Red Bull have been offered an 'Accepted Breach Agreement' by the FIA as part of the next steps to solve this impasse. It suggests a punishment for Red Bull that they can choose to accept, though it comes with the caveat that they must publicly admit they broke the rules.
Team principal Christian Horner met with FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem between FP1 and Fp2 on Friday at Austin as the team mulls over its options. No matter what they decide, he will break his silence on the issue on Saturday during the team bosses press conference, where he will share the microphone with McLaren chief Zak Brown and Ferrari's Mattia Binotto.
