The International Automobile Federation has made official the agreement reached with the Red Bull team and the Aston Martin team after accepting both structures for having breached the regulations regarding the F1 spending limit in the 2021 season.
Last September, during the Singapore GP , a rumor surfaced that two teams had broken the budget cap, and Aston Martin and Red Bull were quickly targeted. Although both teams denied it, the FIA ended up making it official on October 10 that both teams had broken the limit, although in a different way.
On the one hand, Red Bull exceeded the budget limit of Formula 1 2021 committing an infraction considered ‘minor’ exceeding the allowable expenses and also a procedural infraction . For its part, Aston Martin was found to have committed only a procedural offence .
This Thursday, at Motorsport.com we anticipated (and others copied) that the FIA and Red Bull and Aston Martin had reached an agreement on what sanctions would be applied, and now it has been confirmed. To reach this agreement, Red Bull has admitted to having breached the regulations, even if it was not on purpose.
FIA sanctions Red Bull for exceeding the cost limit of Formula 1 2021
- Sports sanction against Red Bull: reduction of the aerodynamic tests that it can do for 2023, by 10%
- Economic sanction to Red Bull: 7 million dollars (7.04 million euros) that must be paid within the next 30 days.
The FIA found that while Red Bull’s 2021 submission was below the cost cap, they committed a procedural breach as it “incorrectly excluded and/or adjusted costs totaling £5,607,000” (about €6.5 million).
That means the final total budget for Red Bull’s unveiling last year was £118,036,000, which means it was over the budget cap by £1,864,000 (€2.1 million), i.e. by 1.6% of what is allowed.
Red Bull explained to the FIA that the additional €6.5m was due to excluded costs covering 13 areas. Among others, contributions to social security for its staff, cost of using the power units or an administrative error in the calculation of the costs charged to Red Bull by Red Bull Powertrains.
Before Red Bull and Aston Martin in June, Williams also had to pay a fine for a procedural breach of late filing.
After the FIA announced the breach of F1’s cost limit, Red Bull had two paths to follow. On the one hand, deny having broken the rules and face a hearing with the Panel for the Adjudication of Costs , which would decide the sanctions to be applied. On the other hand, it could reach an Accepted Breach Agreement (ABA) with the FIA, which has finally happened.
At the United States GP, the FIA planned terms to present to Red Bull, and despite a long talk between Christian Horner and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem , negotiations were put on hold by the death of Red Bull’s owner. Now, the matter has been taken up again and both parties have reached an agreement to, on the one hand, admit guilt and, on the other, abide by the sanctions.
In addition to the economic fine of 7 million dollars, the test time in the wind tunnel will be reduced. The 10% reduction will be applied in relation to the testing time allowed to Red Bull for the next season, thus complying with the lowest possible sporting sanction.
Having won the constructors’ championship in 2021, the team was entitled to 70% of the seventh-placed’s aero testing time , but this will now be reduced by a tenth, meaning it drops to 63%.
Should they maintain second and third place in the standings, Ferrari and Mercedes will have 75 and 80% of the P7 aerodynamic testing time.
Do the sanctions convince you? Rivals are not entirely satisfied.
