Editors Desk: FIA opens can of worms with Red Bull F1 Cost Cap ruling
F1 NewsSaturday, 29 October 2022 at 14:59
Whoever thought that, with the FIA announcing Red Bull's sentence for breaching the 2021 Formula 1 cost cap, this matter will be put to bed is extremely mistaken, a can of worms has just been opened.
Red Bull breached the F1 cost cap. That is a fact established by F1's ruling body, and they have been penalized as per the Accepted Breach Agreement (ABA) by paying $7-Million and having to reduce their wind tunnel time by 10% for 12 months.
Now Red Bull and their supporters will cry foul claiming that is too harsh while, on the other hand, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Co will insist it is not enough and won't stop until Max Verstappen is stripped from his 2021 Title, and why not have a go at his and his team's 2022 Titles.
On our 50k-strong Facebook group as well as countless respected forums, and in comments sections, and the inevitable pouring of criticism and even outrage:
- Isaac Odigbo: Corruption of the highest bidder...
- Grahame O'Neill: Not harsh enough at all....FIA in Red Bulls pocket....
- Jason Zippy Young: FIA what a joke, killing this sport , not enough , should be 70 million , stripped of 2021 championship , banned from f1 for 12 months , redbull has dominated 2022 because of this overspend and will dominant 2023 season makes my blood boil , not a fair sport at all , I thought the idea of cost cap was to bring all teams closer and provide sponsors and public with better racing , again FIA a complete joke... enough said , time to find a better sport to watch for 2023...
- Elaine Bradley: This just shows for RB cheating is okay because they can afford the fine. This isn't a penalty, it's another gift from the FIA. What a joke.
- Darren Dunn: Goes to show cheating to win will only cost you 7 million in pocket change .
- Mark Scott Webster: Thank you FIA for continuing your tradition of making a MOCKERY of yourselves, your decision making and your fierce incorruptible passion for the good of the sport
- Suzan Ellis: Red bull has cheated fact... and has spoiled my enjoyment of watching F1..between them and Micheal Massy cheating decisions i have now made my own decision to stop watching the sport altogether and expect i wont be the only one..such a shame but i cant bear to watch injustice when that happens you have lost respect.
And there is much more negative feedback, very little if any praising the sentence Red Bull received from the FIA. Check the post on our Facebook GrandPrix247 fan page.
The biggest problem in this situation is not what Red Bull did and other F1 teams didn't do, but the cost regulations themselves firstly, and more importantly the principle of a cost cap in itself secondly.
Firstly, starting with the F1 cost cap regulations
Everyone who read the ABA and FIA statement on Friday would realize how much legal literature we had to go through before the useful conclusion is reached; a monetary fine and a sporting penalty.
All those fancy words written by legal minds in a way to make it impossible for any two lawyers to agree on the same interpretation, will be gibberish to the average reader, and more importantly are filled with grey areas and loopholes that allow an ABA such as the one Red Bull and the FIA signed possible.
Notably, all teams have signed up for those regulations after extensive discussions with the FIA and Formula 1 while being fully aware of the aforementioned loopholes and grey zones; I dare say they consciously wanted them in there.
Why? Because all the teams know that they could've been in Red Bull's situation, or could be in the future and they would want that leeway to get out of the problem like the energy drinks outfit did.
But as long as they aren't in trouble, Zak Brown and Toto Wolff can lecture us all they can about transparency, cheating and being law abiding F1 citizens, while Christian Horner will stick to his narrative that sick leaves and some sandwiches were behind the F1 cost cap breach.
I am no legal person, but all the legal crap that preceded Red Bull's sentence is just there to cover the asses of the FIA and whichever team in breach of the regulations under the ABA. This time it was Red Bull, next time it will be any other team.
The FIA acknowledged that had Red Bull correctly applied tax credit - whatever the hell that means - the breach would've been £432,652 ($0.5m), or 0.37% instead of the announced £1,864,000 ($2.2m) or 1.6%.
So other teams may have been in excess but applied proper tax credit and ended up being in the safe zone which means it's just how you present the data and not the data itself that matters, and before everyone starts blasting this statement bear in mind it is a calculated guess based on life experience of how accountants and lawyers twist the facts.
The letter of the regulations may have been followed when reaching this Red Bull/FIA conclusion but in the end of the day it doesn't make sense because a straightforward assessment tells you that you can build a B-spec F1 car with the $2.2-Million Red Bull overspent, which should consequently necessitate a much more painful penalty.
So to all those taking sides, just keep in mind that this time it was your team in the safe zone, next time they won't be and then you will be running the Red Bull narrative. Such is the level of hypocrisy we suffer in F1 these days.
Secondly, The Elephant in the room
This brings me to the elephant in the room, the principle of the F1 cost cap itself. It should not be there; plain and simple as it contradicts all the ethos of F1.
You either go big in F1 or go home. Teams that are pro cost cap are other big teams blowing their huge budgets on underwhelming performances or teams who blame their failure on others spending more money.
Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes spend almost the same amount of money and that wasn't the key behind their successes, and while the cost cap has been around for two seasons now, McLaren are still unable to break into the top three.
The F1 cost cap is wrong, cannot be policed properly and will always be the cause of controversy in our beloved sport, every year at this time - ten months after the 'final whistle' blew on the previous season!
A final word on the true victims in this situation we find ourselves in, Formula 1, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton. While the sport has to suffer from all this contention, their 2021 epic season has taken a back seat.
These two have delivered one of the most tantalizing battles F1 has seen in years, and instead Verstappen's maiden Title is being tarnished, while Hamilton's immense efforts to deny him that - something he should hold his head up high for - has also been sidelined.
Sad that Lewis, a living legend of the sport, and Max, a legend-in-the-making have to suffer all this injustice. -
Paul Velasco: A slap on the wrist for Red Bull, a punch in the face for F1
While the FIA may pat themselves for a job well done, thinking this matter (like Abu Dhabi 2021) is done and dusted... sorry to say, it is definitely NOT, unless, of course, they live in their own tiny bubble. Perhaps they think they do?
The delays by the FIA, the leaks, the uncertainties, and the speculation has resurrected the ghosts of 2021 while triggering another wave of social media carnage as the digital maggots feast on the sumptuous banquet of controversy that this has fired off this past week, to the detriment of the sport.
The FIA, under the new era of leadership by president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, was and is a cumbersome organization that looked in comfortable disarray from the outside, but that disarray is getting messier, faster, the disdain (and sadly, hate) directed at the organisation is fueled by their own mishandling of some very crucial matters, in the intense spotlight that F1 attracts.
For the F1 Cost Cap to work, the penalties had to be draconian, but when a sport allows teams to write the rules, every loophole imaginable will be found. In the end, FIA painted themselves into a corner when it came to sentencing with few options.
The most sensible, and perhaps saving grace ruling would have been Red Bull stripped of all points for their 'accounting error' and all the money that goes with that, while allowing Max Verstappen to keep the title, because of overspending on catering or worker benefits, or whatever they blew money on, did not impact his performance over the course of that incredible year.
Steiner: Just a little bit of mayhem going on
The FIA and their official/s erred massively at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, what should have been F1's greatest race will forever be tarnished by the folks who wear the shirt with FIA embroidered on it, a shame for the greatest drivers of this era, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, deserved far better after a season where they gave it all, and nearly more.
That season is further sullied by the handling of this entire F1 Cost Cap farce, the expense of this failed noble attempt to reign in the most competitive teams in sport has flopped massively at the first hurdle, no matter if all teams signed up to this joke, we can all see they were wrong, it is wrong.
F1 is fast descending from the King of Sports to the charade that is WWE, as the rule-makers live in an alternative reality as they lose respect from everyone across the board be it for the handling of Abu Dhai 2021, the current F1 Cost Cap fiasco and last Sunday, their bumbling of the Haas-Alpine protest.
Which prompted Haas team principal Guenther Steiner to reveal, to Sky F1, the kind of sentiment permeating in the paddock right now in Mexico: “It shows again, there’s no consistency. Our whole point was they need to be consistent, which wasn’t there.
"There is just a little bit of mayhem going on. It is frustrating if the race director doesn’t know the rules!” declared Steiner; which pretty much sums up where the FIA stands right now - Paul Velasco, Publisher
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