Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff urged his Red Bull counterpart, Christian Horner, to stay in tune with his Chief Financial Officer, confirming that the Red Bull Racing team has been under investigation for a potential budget cap breach for weeks. The Austrian also revealed they had to reduce the number of personnel in Mercedes to accommodate their expenditures within their budget caps.
Responding to Horner’s claims that there were no breaches, the Mercedes team boss spoke to Sky Sports saying:
“It’s funny that Christian [Horner] says that because it’s been weeks and months they’re being investigated, so maybe he doesn’t speak to his CFO (Chief Financial Officer). As a matter of fact, all of us have been investigated diligently. As far as we understand, there’s a team in minor breach which is more procedural, and another team that is fundamentally, massively over and that is being still looked at. So that’s an open secret in the paddock.” “Funny that Christian says that because it’s been weeks and months they are being investigated”
Toto Wolff has his say on the 2021 Formula One budget cap.
“Funny that Christian says that because it’s been weeks and months they are being investigated” Toto Wolff has his say on the 2021 Formula One budget cap. https://t.co/OX82UJd68P
In the run-up to the 2022 F1 Singapore GP, there has been chatter about Red Bull Racing and Aston Martin having breached the budget cap for the 2021 season. Horner has quashed the speculation, but Wolff believes the Briton should be speaking to his CFO.
The Mercedes chief confirmed that Red Bull Racing have been under investigation for weeks while explaining how they had to reduce the number of employees and restructure their team to accommodate themselves amidst the budget cap. If there has been an extensive breach, Wolff believes that it has been an unfair advantage for the teams who gained from it. There have also been rumors and speculations about Ferrari and Mercedes breaching the cost cap in 2022.
Revealing how Mercedes managed the budget cap, Wolff said:
“[It’s a] massively heavy [issue]. We are using used parts. We are not running what we would want to run, we are not developing what we could be developing. We have made more than 40 people redundant, that are dearly missed in our organization. It was a huge mammoth project to make the car, I don’t know how many 10s of millions we had to restructure, reprocess, in order to be below the cap and, if someone has been not doing that or pushing the boundaries, every million is a massive disadvantage.”
Mercedes boss believes cost-cap breach will have a significant impact
Speaking of the rumors, Toto Wolff claimed to have faith in the governance of the FIA in terms of scrutinizing the budget cap breaches. The Mercedes chief believes the penalties for a potential breach not only impact the 2021 season but the current one and the one after. Explaining that there were independent judges in place to decide the penalties for the budget cap breaches, the Austrian believes it is not up to him to judge the punishment if Red Bull are guilty of breaching the cap.
Explaining the impact of the penalties for breaching the budget cap, the Mercedes Executive Director said:
“I do not know. I think there’s governance in place that’s very solid, that the FIA has set up. [Teams] will be issued a certificate of compliance and, if you’re not compliant, it goes to the so-called Cost Cap Adjudication panel with independent judges, and they can then choose from these penalties, the appropriate ones. But the crucial part is that, if you’ve been over in ’21, then you’ve been over in ’22. That means you have an advantage into ’23. If it’s true that they formulated a lightweight chassis this year, they may use it next year. So it’s really a cascade of events that can be influential on all of the three championships.”
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: Toto Wolff calls on FIA to show “integrity and leadership” and take a “robust stance” if it finds any F1 teams broke the budget cap regulations in relation to the current rumor about teams exceeding the cap in 2021.# F1#SingaporeGP https://t.co/5U6r8Yx2mZ
Asked what the punishment would be if Red Bull had breached the cost cap, the Mercedes boss said:
“It’s not up to me to judge, and it’s not realistic up to me to judge what the penalties could be. The judges have all that scope to analyze, but I wouldn’t want to be in their position because of the impact it has over three years. At this stage, it is still an assessment of what is happening. I think it would be important to have a certain degree of transparency where the alleged breaches have happened, or the alleged misinterpretations [have been] in order for us to assess, because you need to imagine – even if it’s the so-called minor breach that can be below 5%, you can spend $7 million more than everybody else. That means, if this is a light penalty, we will be all pushing those 5% more going forward.”
According to Wolff, it is still unclear who breached the budget cap and by what amount. The Mercedes chief suggested that one team might have breached a minor amount, which could result in a small penalty, while another has breached it excessively.
While the Silver Arrows team still holds resentment from the fallout of the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, this might be the silver bullet to get politically after the Red Bull Racing team. If Mercedes themselves have exceeded the limit in 2022, however, their political lobbying could fall short.
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