Motorsport: By accepting fine, Red Bull fuels F1 cheating claims

Red Bull Racing's team boss Christian Horner. Photo / Photosport

OPINION:

If you have exceeded a budget cap by only £430,000 (NZ$860,000), why do you then accept a fine of over £6million? It might be understandable that Red Bull opted for an “accepted breach agreement”, Formula One’s equivalent of an out-of-court settlement, given that further investigations threatened the nuclear option of stripping Max Verstappen of his 2021 world title. But acquiescing to a financial penalty 14 times greater than the team’s overspend does little to cleanse their image. On the contrary, it gives their rivals carte blanche to keep impugning their integrity.

“We accept the penalties, begrudgingly,” said a stern Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, in Mexico City. This was quite the climbdown from the tone he had struck before, where he would react with molten rage to any suggestion that his team had crossed a line. Sitting in Austin next to Zak Brown, he could barely contain his anger at a letter written by his McLaren counterpart that had effectively accused them of cheating, arguing that the slur was even harming the mental health of his employees’ children.

One moment, he is utterly defiant, indicating that he will sue everyone who doubts him. The next, he is simply giving in to sanctions he describes as “hugely draconian”, including a 10 per cent reduction in wind-tunnel testing time that he claims will cost Red Bull up to half a second per lap next season. It would help if he held a consistent line.

The trouble is that these punishments do little to defuse the climate of suspicion. Ultimately, the FIA found that they committed a financial breach – and in 13 different areas, no less, from catering to maintenance costs, apprenticeship levies to social security contributions. This all came, do not forget, during an F1 campaign so close that the drivers’ championship was only resolved on the final lap of the final race. Now, rather than risking the saga becoming any messier, they have agreed to a fine far eclipsing the original transgression, the specifics of which they still dispute. Mercedes, livid at the manner of Verstappen’s triumph in Abu Dhabi last December, will want to know why.

Toto Wolff, who refused even to attend the prize-giving gala in Paris in protest, has already been ruffling Horner’s feathers, talking of the “open secret” that one team had “massively broken” the cost cap. This was, perhaps, a touch hyperbolic. Red Bull had technically gone over the limit by £430,000, with the FIA resolving that they had submitted £1.4 million in tax unnecessarily. That is not, by F1 standards, a massive amount of money.

Nor, come to that, is the fine. For anybody seeking to throw Red Bull into the sport’s hall of infamy, it should be remembered that McLaren were fined £100 million (£86.5 million) for Spygate in 2007.

Max Verstappen celebrates after winning the 2021 Formula 1 Drivers' Championship. Photo / Photosport

The FIA’s verdict does not imply any reputational blemish for Red Bull, stressing that “there is no accusation or evidence that Red Bull has sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly, or in a fraudulent manner”.

On that basis, former world champion Damon Hill argued that it was “time to move along”. But the punishment is, given the circumstances of last year’s season climax, embarrassing.

The stakes were so high, and Mercedes were so alert to the slightest possibility of dispute that they even brought their own barrister to Yas Marina. For them, the four-hour post-race inquest required to confirm Verstappen’s title is still a raw wound. Wolff and Horner have barely been on speaking terms since. With the confirmation that Red Bull have overspent enough to be fined £6 million, you wonder if they will ever talk again.

Horner sounded anything but contrite. Pressed on whether Red Bull would say sorry for breaking the rules, he insisted it was his team who were due an apology from their rivals for besmirching their image. This strays perilously close to victimhood and is unlikely to soothe diplomatic relations in the paddock. Given the strict level field that the budget cap was meant to enforce, there is a widespread feeling that Red Bull have escaped lightly for failing to adhere to it. Indeed, so relatively light is the deterrent, will those desperate to wrest the constructors’ crown away next year be tempted to try the same?

For Lewis Hamilton and his army of disciples, there will always be an asterisk over Verstappen’s maiden glory, due to then race director Michael Masi’s controversial handling of the theatre. Those doubts will only be reinforced by Red Bull’s admission that they were in breach of stringent financial regulations. Horner would not hear of the notion, adamant that Verstappen won the championship “fair and square”. But how many beyond the team base in Milton Keynes will fully believe him? The outcry over Masi was so intense that the Australian has since been managed out of the FIA. Now the confirmation of the overspend fuels claims, vigorously denied by Horner, that Red Bull held an illegitimate advantage.

All this is deeply unfair on Verstappen. After all, he is only required to drive the car, not to conduct a line-by-line examination of his team’s catering budget or to ensure that the sick pay numbers are all in order.

But the grim reality, at the end of this tortuous saga, is that Red Bull have given their closest challengers plenty of reasons to keep stirring the pot.