Red Bull Racing’s breach of the 2021 cost cap has raised concerns among Formula 1 teams about whether they will comply with the budget cap in 2022. Team principal Christian Horner addressed these concerns and gave his views on the matter while speaking to Motorsport.
Horner confirmed that Red Bull would continue to feed its personnel and wouldn’t reduce the money spent on them. He said that some costs are one-off costs that are apportioned within the cap, such as redundancy costs, leaver costs, and sick pay.
He then explained that Red Bull was not the team to watch out for when it comes to budget cap breaches in 2022, and it is other teams that are in danger of violating the budget cap. Horner pointed out that other teams have put significantly more components on the car than Red Bull this year. He also noted that crash damage is hugely expensive and needs to be looked at within the cap.
He expressed hope that Red Bull wouldn’t breach the budget cap two years in a row, but he couldn’t be 100% sure that they would stay within the cap. Horner said, “We are confident and hopeful that with the process of these regulations being tidied up for the future, it will become less of an accounting world championship.”
He also suggested that multiple teams could be in violation of the budget cap in 2022, and questioned the degree to which they would be punished. Horner said, “A danger for 2022 is that there could be six teams in breach of the cap. So, if you get 10% for 0.37% breach, what is the 5% breach going to be?”
Horner concluded by saying that the penalties set precedent for the future, and he hopes that the regulations would be tidied up so that it would become less of an accounting world championship.
