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McLaren boss Zak Brown thanked the FIA for transparently handling the cost cap breach but believes the sanctions against a guilty team should be stronger next time.
While speaking to BBC, the McLaren head, who has been a very vocal figure in Red Bull's cost cap breach, gave his verdict on the FIA's punishment:
"If the FIA is to be most effective and its punishments serve as a lesson to others when rules are broken in this way, the sanctions have to be much stronger in the future. We hope that the lessons learned through this process will now mean all teams have a clear understanding of the rules in order to avoid any future breaches. While we are pleased to see them act, we would hope the FIA take stronger action in future against those that wilfully break the rules."
Brown further added that strict action was necessary against Red Bull:
"We appreciate the cost cap investigation is a complex process which the FIA have conducted in a thorough and transparent manner. I'm pleased the truth is out there now and it is the result is as we expected - there was a breach of the cost cap by one team, with the other nine operating in line with the rules. It is therefore only right that punitive action is taken."
The McLaren CEO went one step ahead of his colleagues when he wrote a letter to the FIA, accusing the Austrian outfit of 'cheating.' The American clarified that a mere fine should not settle the issue at any cost.
Consequently, Red Bull has been posted with a $7m fine and will also see a 10 percent reduction in its aero testing next season.
McLaren driver claims he knew early on that the Austin race was going to be a struggle
McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo claimed that the MCL-36 proved to be a struggle for him early on, hinting at a challenging race weekend in Austin. The Australian ultimately had to incur a dismal performance on his favorite track of the calendar.
Speaking to the media ahead of the F1 Mexican GP, the driver claimed:
"But I feel like we certainly took something from it since the race, and hopefully it puts us in better shape this weekend. So yeah, see what happens. But I mean, I knew quite early on in the race that it was going to be tough like it was. Yeah, I've been doing it long enough now to know that when you have it under you when you don't. And so that was I think the tough thing – just trying to try and find a way through the race to make it a more competitive situation for us. But yeah, quite early on, it proved to be a struggle."
Alex Palou replaced Daniel Ricciardo for the FP1 session at the COTA circuit. The driver, however, clocked in the third fastest lap time during FP2 but was only 15th in the last session.
The driver's struggles with McLaren will soon end as the season reaches its finale. The Woking-based outfit chose to replace Ricciardo with Oscar Piastri for 2023, which leaves the Aussie without a seat for next year.
