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Haas team principal Guenther Steiner feels that if Red Bull has breached the cost cap then it should be termed as 'cheating'.
Speaking to the media during the Team Principals' press conference at the 2022 F1 US GP, Steiner was questioned on the terminology used by McLaren boss Zak Brown where he used the term 'cheating' for Red Bull's cost cap breach.
Steiner admitted that he felt everyone should be considered innocent until proven guilty. If the FIA, however, has determined that Red Bull breached the cost cap, then it surely is cheating on all fronts. He said:
"I always have an opinion, [you are] innocent until proven guilty. Maybe [Zak] knows more than me, but [on] this stuff I live with the authority. It is like going under weight or using too much fuel. We got excluded from a race because of a technical infringement of three millimetres, which didn't make a difference going fast[er] or not. So it is cheating, but as the rules are written, there are penalties and we need to respect them. There is nothing [in the rules to say] if you cheat, you're excluded. So there you need to find the right penalty for that."
Speaking about the cost cap and how several of his counterparts felt that this breach would mean the end of F1 budget caps, Steiner expressed disbelief and said that Haas was on the grid primarily because of the budget cap. He claimed that if the cap wasn't in place, Haas would have already left the sport, saying:
"We are still here because of the budget cap, otherwise we would have been gone in 2020. We need to make the rules better and stronger, but it's a good step and the budget cap will not go away. So we just need to adjust these breaches now, how we handle them this time to start off with, and then in the future. Therefore, I'm relaxed, because I think the budget cap works."
Need to make sure the principle of a budget cap is intact: Guenther Steiner on Red Bull's cost cap breach
Guenther Steiner stressed that there needed to be steps taken to ensure such a breach does not take place in the future. He said:
"We need to make sure that in the future, we are not getting away from the principle of a budget cap. 'Is it one million or two million [Red Bull] overspent?' That doesn't make a difference to me at the moment, because we have made a good step having a budget cap and getting the teams closer together."
The decision with regard to the penalty for the Milton Keynes-based squad is expected to be declared during the 2022 F1 Mexican GP weekend.
