Red Bull in 'minor' breach of F1's cost cap, says FIA

LONDON - Red Bull and Aston Martin breached Formula One's cost cap rules in 2021, the sport's governing FIA said in a statement on Monday.

Red Bull, the team of world champion Max Verstappen, were considered to have committed a procedural and "minor" overspend breach. This means the leading team in the 2022 constructor standings exceeded the cap by less than 5 per cent, or US$7.25 million (S$10.4 million).

Aston Martin were held to be in procedural breach, which is not an overspend, but rather a failure to fill in forms correctly, added FIA.

Williams were also found guilty of this and fined US$25,000 in 2022.

A statement added: "The FIA cost cap administration has issued certificates of compliance to seven of the 10 competitors.

"With respect to this first year of the application of the financial regulations, the intervention of the FIA cost-cap administration has been limited to reviewing the submissions made by the competitors and that no full formal investigations were launched."

The governing body's Cost Cap Administration will determine at a later date what action to take against both teams.

However, British media reports on Monday said it will not result in 2022 F1 world champion Verstappen losing his 2021 title in favour of runner-up Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.

In a statement, Red Bull said: "We note the findings by the FIA of 'minor overspend breaches of the financial regulations' with surprise and disappointment.

"Our 2021 submission was below the cost cap limit, so we need to carefully review the FIA's findings as our belief remains that the relevant costs are under the 2021 cost cap amount.

"Despite the conjecture and position of others, there is of course a process under the regulations with the FIA which we will respectfully follow while we consider all the options available to us."

Meanwhile, several teams intend to speak to the FIA and get the issue surrounding "the revised points rules" sorted as their understanding of the new rules differ from the governing body.

It was widely assumed that following the new rules introduced after 2021's Belgian Grand Prix - which ended farcically during lap three due to wet conditions - Verstappen would not be given full points for his Japanese GP victory on Sunday, as the race had not run beyond 75 per cent of the distance.

However, race authorities stuck to a strict interpretation of F1's sporting regulations, meaning the award of full points, as the race was not suspended, and resulted in Verstappen sealing his second world title at Suzuka.

REUTERS