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BBC’s Andrew Benson says rival teams could have also spent more in the areas in which Red Bull had overspent in, “but that would have meant spending less on engineering and car design”.
The FIA has announced Red Bull’s punishment for breaching the 2021 cost cap. The team has received a $7m fine, and its wind tunnel and CFD testing time will be reduced by 10%.
Many observers are shocked by such a light penalty, and BBC’s Andrew Benson agrees there will be a lot of questions from rival teams.
“Red Bull already had the lowest permitted aerodynamic research time for the first half of 2023 as a result of winning this year’s championship,” Benson wrote.
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“Last year, F1 introduced a sliding scale of aerodynamic restrictions in an attempt to close up the field, giving the lowest team in the championship the most research time and the highest the least.
“Rival teams will have questions as to whether the punishment is appropriate, particularly over whether the fine will have any effect on a vastly wealthy global corporation, and also as to why the amounts published are different from those that were doing the rounds of the F1 paddock at last weekend’s US Grand Prix.
“They will also likely point out that the areas of the overspend are irrelevant because they, too, could have chosen to spend more in such areas, but that would have meant spending less on engineering and car design,” the Briton concluded.
