Red Bull’s F1 cost cap overspend “constitutes cheating”, Brown tells FIA

The FIA is currently evaluating its next steps after announcing last week that Red Bull had breached last year’s cost cap limit, as well as having committed a procedural offence.

Aston Martin was also found to have broken the rules with a procedural breach.

Both Red Bull and Aston Martin have the option of going down an Accepted Breach Agreement if they concur with the FIA’s findings, or they can choose to challenge the matter through the Cost Cap Adjudication panel.

While it is not clear which route will be taken, McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown has written to the FIA to let it be known how critical he thinks it is that the matter is not brushed under the carpet.

In the letter, a copy of which has been seen by Motorsport.com, he said: “The overspend breach, and possibly the procedural breaches, constitute cheating by offering a significant advantage across technical, sporting, and financial regulations.”

He added: “The bottom line is any team who has overspent has gained an unfair advantage both in the current and following year’s car development.”

Brown wrote the letter to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali in private last week.

However, the contents of the letter have emerged after Brown also sent it to all the cost cap compliant teams over the weekend. This included Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams.

Sporting punishment

In the letter, Brown expressed his faith in the FIA’s policing of the cost cap process so far but said that how the governing body acted now was hugely important.

He argued that there was no excuse for any team to have overspent, especially as everyone had been through a dress rehearsal of spending limits in 2020.

“The FIA has run an extremely thorough, collaborative, and open process, we have even been given a one-year dress rehearsal with ample opportunity to seek any clarification if details were unclear. So, there is no reason for any team to now say they are surprised,” he said.

Brown also expressed his belief that any breach of the spending limit should result in a sporting penalty rather than just a fine.

“We don’t feel a financial penalty alone would be a suitable penalty for [an] overspend breach or a serious procedural breach, there clearly needs to be a sporting penalty in these instances, as determined by the FIA,” he added.

“We suggest that the overspend should be penalised…