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The latest controversy to hit the F1 world was Red Bull's breaching the cost cap in the 2021 season. The Milton Keynes-based outfit has been found guilty of a minor breach of its budget for the 2021 season. The subsequent outrage has been immense and if reports are to be believed, teams like Mercedes and Ferrari are lobbying for stringent action. Not only that, but a leaked letter from McLaren to the FIA is asking for more than just a fine for Red Bull.
Now, before we get to the possible penalties and answer the question of whether Mercedes, Ferrari, and other teams can play the victim card, let's first take a look at how we reached here.
The Red Bull cost cap breach saga: A brief
It all started during the 2022 F1 Singapore GP weekend. Two prominent F1 publications, a German and an Italian one, published a report that stated Red Bull and Aston Martin had breached the cost cap for the 2021 F1 season. The news spread like wildfire and became a hot topic over the weekend.
It was during this time that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff doubled down and said that this was something of an open secret in the paddock. He stated that based on the information that Mercedes had, two teams had breached the cost cap and Red Bull was the one that had breached it by a significant amount.
The cost cap report was then released on the Monday after the F1 Japanese GP and revealed that Red Bull had indeed breached its cost cap for the 2021 F1 season. The team was found guilty of a minor breach that meant it had overspent on its budget by less than 5% of the allotted budget cap.
Red Bull subsequently came out with a statement expressing shock over the results of the sport and stated that it would work with the FIA to understand where the discrepancy was. At the time of writing, Red Bull is deemed guilty of a minor breach of the 2021 F1 season cost cap.
What's our take on it?
Looking at the situation at hand, it is safe to say that something like this is unacceptable. A minor breach means that Red Bull's overspending could vary from anything between $1 to $7.25 million (the budget cap was $145 million). A $7.25 million breach is a significant amount and this is happening in the very first season of the cost cap.
The FIA is responsible here for taking whatever action is necessary because if it does not, it sets an unwanted precedence for future infringements from teams.
What is the expected action from the FIA?
This is where things can get murky. First of all, the range of minor overspending is huge. Secondly, the range of penalties that the FIA could choose from varies from a reprimand to a sporting penalty. The problem here is once again the level of subjectivity in all of this.
From what we can expect, Max Verstappen's titles are safe. Historic precedence does show that the FIA does not punish drivers for their teams' infringements. So, whatever penalty is doled out by the FIA will be imposed on Red Bull and not Verstappen.
The amount by which Red Bull breached the cost cap is still unknown. Consequently, the penalty could vary from a reprimand to a fine or could even extend to an impact on the wind tunnel time that will be available to the team next season.
Can Mercedes, Ferrari, and others play the victim card?
Having set the foundation for the cost cap saga, let us address the outcry from both Mercedes and Ferrari. Toto Wolff has come out with varied allegations against Red Bull and made it a point to dismiss the term 'minor breach'. According to the Mercedes boss, no breach is 'minor' as any extra amount spent over the budget will yield a performance gain.
Now, in no way is Toto Wolff wrong in making that assessment, and Mattia Binotto has echoed those sentiments as well. The question that needs to be answered here is whether Mercedes and Ferrari have the right to play the victim card if Red Bull gets away with an insignificant penalty. What if Red Bull gets away with a reprimand? Or a token fine for a minor breach? Can Mercedes and Ferrari act like they are the victims of an unfair course of action?
The answer to that question is: NO! Neither Mercedes nor Ferrari nor any other team can act like a victim if Red Bull gets away with a 'minor' breach of the cost cap. Why? Because the F1 teams signed off on this course of action when the cost cap proposal was finalized.
The F1 teams have only themselves to blame
The regulations that we have in place right now and the course of action in case of a minor breach were ratified by all the F1 teams on the grid. When all the details were finalized for the cost cap, each team was in agreement as to what would happen if a team breaches the cost cap.
Right now, Toto Wolff, Mattia Binotto, and even Zak Brown can act as surprised as they want about the 'minor' cost cap breach terminology. That, however, does not change the fact that these teams knew beforehand what the course of action would be in case of a breach.
Understanding the politics in F1 and the FIA
At this point, we need to understand a facet of F1 that does not reveal itself too often. F1 is a business that is run in a politically charged environment. Every F1 team is looking to leverage a certain level of power to gain whatever edge it can over their competition.
When the cost cap was decided, a correctional factor of 5% was put in place by the FIA in case an F1 team is a victim of either a miscalculation or a misinterpretation. This 5% correction factor is what is termed a 'minor breach'. The most important thing here is that the teams assented to this! It's not as if something like this has been done without the teams being aware of it.
Politics comes into play because teams are now trying to use media lobbying to make the most of the situation. The term 'minor breach' is not something that the FIA plucked out of thin air and presented to the F1 teams when Red Bull breached the cost cap. It was present all along when the cost cap regulations were approved by the teams.
As an F1 fan, we need to try and understand what is happening right now. The way the FIA has defined the course of action means that we have a large gray area within which the teams can work. The range of overspending for the minor breach is huge ($1 to $7.25 million) and similarly, the range of penalties is significant (a reprimand to a sporting penalty).
It is this gray area that is the battleground where teams like Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes will fight. The statements we have seen from all these parties and the 'leaked' McLaren letter to the FIA are just teams trying to make the most of the situation. Red Bull is trying to escape this situation unscathed at best, while other teams are hoping to inflict maximum possible damage to the team.
Whatever penalty (if any) will be doled out to Red Bull will largely be in line with what has been the course of action decided for these transgressions. Now, even though McLaren would want to suggest an alteration in the 'minor' overspend terminology in the future, or Toto Wolff would not want anything to be termed a 'minor' overspend, all of this is media lobbying. It has nothing to do with the penalty that should be given to Red Bull at the moment.
The criteria for the penalty will be what was decided by the FIA and approved by all the teams when the cost cap proposal was passed. Hence, if Red Bull does get away with something insignificant, then the F1 teams only have themselves to blame.
What F1 fans need to understand here is that the teams on the grid are now protesting a course of action that they themselves approved. While this kind of contradiction works in the media, it might not work with the FIA. If Red Bull gets away with a minor breach, the F1 teams need to look in the mirror because that's the only entity that they can blame for all of this.
