"It's still hugely premature": Red Bull boss refutes Fred Vasseur's claims on cost cap breach penalty

Red Bull boss Christian Horner refuted the claim made by the Ferrari team principal that the cost cap breach penalty was too light.

Talking about the penalty and the severity of it, Fred Vasseur claimed that the penalty was too light and it should have been harsher.

The Red Bull boss, however, does not agree with the assessment made by Vasseur as he claimed that it would be a bit premature to make these claims already. A more definitive answer to this could be made once a meaningful amount of time has elapsed.

Claiming that everyone is free to have an opinion, the Red Bull boss told Sky Sports:

“Everybody’s got an opinion and I think everybody’s free to have an opinion. The team have done a great job over the winter on limited wind-tunnel time that we’ve had to develop this car, and of course, that will have an impact later into the year and on next year."

"So on a snapshot of three races, I think it’s still hugely premature in (terms of) this season, there’s an awful lot of racing still to go.”

Commenting on not taking any of the Red Bull rivals lightly, he said:

“There’s a lot of things that can change. We’re hearing of big updates coming for both Ferrari and Mercedes when we get back to Europe. So we’re certainly not taking anything for granted, we’re just focused on ourselves, doing the best job we can within the constraints that we have."

"We’re doing the best that we can with what we’ve got and we know that it’s a tough penalty, it’s one that we’re taking on the chin and we’re applying ourselves in the best way that we possibly can.”

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What did Fred Vasseur say about Red Bull's penalty?

Fred Vasseur recently claimed that Red Bull's penalty for the cost cap breach was very light. Speaking to the media while addressing the Austrian team's early season competitiveness, Vasseur said:

“If you consider the rate of development that we have during the season, the fact that if you have a 10% ban at the end – it’s not something linear. And then you can spend what you are saving somewhere else on weight saving and so on."

"I’m not sure the effect is mega. And if you consider [also] that you have an advantage at the beginning of the season because you spend more the year before. If you ask me if the penalty is too light, I say yes.”

It will be interesting to see if the penalty can help teams close the gap up front because if that doesn't happen, it will once again raise questions over the levity of the penalty.