The FIA announced on Friday that it had reached an Accepted Infringement Agreement with Red Bull after verifying that it had exceeded the cost limit of 145 million dollars [about 128 million euros at the time] for the 2021 season. of Milton Keynes received a fine of 7 million dollars [7.04 million euros at current exchange rates], in addition to a 10% reduction in his time for aerodynamic tests in the next 12 months.
The international federation pointed out in its report that the Austrians acted in “good faith”, listing a series of points in which the team erroneously interpreted the rule.
The team manager, Christian Horner , criticized the penalty imposed on his team, as he considers that it has been promoted by many of its direct rivals, calling the fine “an enormous amount of money”, although the limitation of aerodynamic tests and next year’s development was “the most draconian part” of the sanction.
“I’ve heard people say it’s a negligible amount,” he said. “I can tell you now that it’s huge, that’s between a quarter and half a second per lap, that has a direct effect on next year’s car, and it will be in place for a period of 12 months.
“By winning the constructors’ championship, we became victims of our own success, on top of that 10%, being 5% behind compared to second and third,” he acknowledged.
According to the aerodynamic development regulations, Red Bull will only have 63% of the use time in the wind tunnel compared to the team that finishes seventh in the championship, compared to 75% and 80% for Ferrari and Mercedes. Horner considered that the one-year period will affect both the 2023 and 2024 cars, and believes its severity was due to complaints from rivals.
“It gave our competitors an advantage, which is why they were pushing so hard for a draconian sanction,” he explained. “We’re going to have to work incredibly hard in the time that we’re going to have available, and we’re going to have to be very efficient in the runs that we decide to use the wind tunnel.”
“I have full confidence in our team, in the ability we have. I think they have shown it over and over again,” said the Briton. “There were other sporting sanctions that were available to the FIA, but this one was highly requested by our rivals because they considered that it was the one that affected us the most.
“I’m sure that if they burned down our wind tunnel, it wouldn’t have been enough,” added the head of the team that won its fifth constructors’ world title at the last United States Grand Prix.
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