Christian Horner came out fighting at the F1 team principals press conference at the United States GP. He made several telling statements and named those who accused Red Bull of “cheating”. Sitting next to the Red Bull boss was McLaren’s sometimes brash American chief Zak Brown, who was exposed and appeared to be blatantly lying.
Due to an FIA leak ahead of the Singapore GP, Toto Wolff has spoken out against his rivals accusing them of “massively” overspending and “Gaining a competitive advantage”. The alleged amount of the Red Bull budget car breach was $10 million.
10 days later, the FIA officially revealed that Red Bull had exceeded the $145 million cap for 2021, but classified it as a “minor overrun”. That meant the amount was less than $7.25 million.
Wild gossip about $10 million overspending
Yet paddock gossip continued to claim that even what the FIA called a “minor expense” would improve a team’s performance.
Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, then wrote to the FIA with his views on the type of penalties a team should receive, even for a minor overstep. At the time he knew that only Red Bull had been deemed to have overspent and his letter stated his views on any team overspending.
“constituted cheating”.
Following the opening questions which revealed breaking news Logan Sergeant had been signed for 2023 by Williams, the inevitable question arose over the alleged FIA cost cap breach by Red Bull Racing.
Christian Horner was provocative and angrily accused Zak Brown of speaking out about something he had no information about and claimed his accusations led to “intimidation” children of Red Bull staff.
Brown’s letter to the FIA was ‘shocking’
“Zak’s letter was not copied to us. Obviously we have seen this letter and it is extremely disappointing for another competitor to accuse you of cheating – accusing you of fraudulent activity is shocking. said a furious Christian Horner.
His vitriolic attack on Brown continued.
“It is absolutely shocking that another competitor without the facts, without any knowledge of the details, can make this kind of accusation.
“We have been on trial on public charges for [the] Singapore [Grand Prix]. And the rhetoric of cheaters, the rhetoric that we had this huge advantage. The figures that have been broadcast in the media are miles from reality.
“And the damage this is doing to the brand, to our partners, to our drivers, to our workforce, in a time when mental health is prevalent, we are now seeing significant issues within our workforce. ‘work.
“We get kids who have been bullied in playgrounds who are the kids of our employees – it’s not fair through fictitious allegations from other teams, and you can’t just do that kind of thing. allegations without any facts or substance.
“So we are absolutely appalled by the behavior of some of our competitors.”
Zak Brown unconvincing and lies
Brown seemed to squirm at the reference to bullied children and desperately tried to backtrack with the following explanation.
“My letter explained that I believe that if a team spends more than the cap they will gain an advantage and the cap was a rule, no different from the technical rules of the sport.
“We don’t take a position on whether or not they did. My letter was if anyone has, so here are the things we think need to be addressed.
“We haven’t mentioned any teams. It was a blanket response, now that we’re in the era of cost caps, that if someone breaks that, here’s what we think some of the ramifications are.
Horner was unimpressed and it’s clear Brown’s letter was written knowing full well that it was Red Bull who were being accused by the FIA of overspending.
Therefore, the claim that his letter to the FIA was simply about “any team” – whoever it was – was patently dishonest.
Shock revelation by Horner on a small overtaking
Given speculation that Red Bull spent $10m and the most recent $1.8m, Horner took the public by surprise when he revealed the following.
“The area of contention between us and the FIA is literally a few hundred thousand dollars.”
Interestingly, that’s less than the $300,000 Lewis Hamilton previously claimed if Mercedes exceeded that figure would have seen him claim the 2021 Drivers’ World title.
Horner promised that at the end of the confidentiality period he would explain in detail the exact areas of dispute between the FIA and Red Bull Racing.
“And when we present the facts about the differences of opinion [between RBR and the FIA] on where that money was spent – it has nothing to do with the performance of the car – ZERO to do with the performance of the car.
Horner promises when allowed to go through it publicly “line by line”
Horner promised reporters that if the FIA allowed it, he would walk them through the dispute line by line by promising “full transparency”.
This saga has still badly reflected on the brand new FIA of Mohammed Ben Sulayem. How anyone in the paddock knew Red Bull breached the cost cap limit two weeks before the FIA made the official announcement is on Sulayem’s doorstep.
Additionally, Horner confirmed that the FIA changed its interpretation of how unused parts would be handled after teams submitted their financial statements for audit in March.
$100,000 to do with unused parts dispute
RBR has run a significant number of historical promotional events with F1 cars from previous seasons and it appears the FIA has now counted prepared but unused spare parts which have no bearing on the current F1 project.
The FIA has apparently told a paddock insider that the ball is now with Red Bull Racing. They have been given a punishment offer and if they agree, championship point deductions are out of the question.
Yet FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem should be in no doubt Christian Horner will take the case to the International Court of Appeal – which, in his own words, could take “9 months” – unless the FIA does not recognize that they may have been completed. zealous.
READ MORE: Red Bull rejects FIA penalty offer for spending misses
“It is extremely disappointing for another competitor to accuse you of cheating”
Christian Horner says ‘it’s shocking’ that Red Bull is accused of fraudulent activity as he responds to Zak Brown’s letter. pic.twitter.com/r2acWmm9LK
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) October 22, 2022
#Red #Bull #overspending #revealed #thejudge13