After weeks of discussions with Red Bull, the FIA have confirmed the outcome of their Accepted Breach Agreement with the team and the $7m fine they have been handed for over-spending on the 2021 budget cap.
The team, who took Max Verstappen to the 2021 drivers’ championship and finished second in the constructors’ championship behind winners Mercedes, claimed they had been below the cost cap. They expressed their “surprise and disappointment” when the sport’s governing body confirmed they had not certified the team as complying with last year’s $145m budget restriction.
However, the team signed an Accepted Breach Agreement with the FIA on Wednesday, accepting they had breached the cap by a total of £1,864,000, or a 1.6% overspend. As a result, they agreed to the FIA’s punishment of a $7m (£6,059,092) fine and a ten percent reduction of their allotted wind tunnel and CFD development time for the 2023 season. Red Bull must also cover the costs incurred by the FIA to investigate the overspend and draw up the Accepted Breach Agreement.
While Red Bull are the only one of the ten F1 teams to have been deemed to have failed to stick to the 2021 budget cap, they are not the only teams to have been fined for breaching procedure. Earlier this year, Williams were handed a $25,000 penalty after they alerted the FIA to an error in submitting their accounts for the 2021 season by the deadline. The team accepted an Accepted Breach Agreement and rectified their error to the FIA’s satisfaction, but were fined $25,000 (£21,583) as a result.
Today, Aston Martin were also fined $450,000 (£388,540) for committing a procedural breach of the financial regulations. However, Aston Martin were certified as having remained under the $145m budget cap for the 2021 season.
Red Bull’s $7m is the second-largest issued by the FIA in the history of Formula 1. The most outstanding fine ever issued in Formula 1 history is the eye-watering $100m penalty handed to McLaren in 2007 over the ‘Spygate’ affair. The FIA found that the team, which were fighting for that season’s drivers’ and constructors’ championships, had been in possession of sensitive Ferrari technical data leaked by former engineer Nigel Stepney.
After a lengthy FIA investigation the team were also disqualified from the 2007 constructors’ championship. Drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who were fighting for that year’s drivers’ title, were…
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