Ever since the Singapore Grand Prix, everyone has been talking about Red Bull Racing exceeding the budget limit in Formula 1. Team boss Christian Horner wants to clarify the matter as soon as possible.

Max Verstappen’s Austrian team is said to have exceeded the upper limit by two million euros. The Red Bull cars would then have been developed with more money than allowed. But according to Horner, it’s not that simple. “We still believe that we have complied with the financial rules. There is a lot of room for interpretation in this new process.”

Red Bull stands by its stripes

Horner points out that many of the rules within the budget cap are new. He firmly denies that there was any distortion of competition in Verstappen’s World Cup victory in 2021. “We didn’t get a performance advantage from that story in 2021 and 2022. zero percent. We stand by our stripes: there is no violation.”

Horner and his supporters are now in talks with FIA leadership. Red Bull hopes the case will soon be a thing of the past.

“I hope and think we can find out this weekend,” Horner continued. “I want that, too. No one benefits if we carry on with a legal battle for months: we want to close the book in 2021.”

But what Horner has to say about that isn’t that important to the smaller F1 teams. For the racing teams with less money, the budget ceiling is of great importance. The same applies to McLaren boss Zak Brown. His team sent a letter to the FIA ​​​​urging the federation to act decisively.

Horner resented the attitude of other teams. It would harm his employees, including on a personal level.

Brown is still behind it, he explains. “The cap is important for the sport. I want to be open and let you know what I think about it. My letter is mostly about a guess, but when a team cheats they should be punished.”

half solutions

Brown and Team Williams’ Jost Capito don’t think it’s a disaster that it’s still a while before things are settled and 2021 is truly wrapped up.

Capito: “Nobody likes half-solutions or decisions that lead to new discussions. It makes sense that this will take time. It is so complicated. You can’t just make five pages out of a fifty-page report.”