Red Bull has been accused of violating F1 rules and regulations by spending exceedingly over the cost cap of the last year.
Christian Horner has avoided answering a question about Lewis Hamilton’s remark that Mercedes might have won the world championship if they had spent more money.
On Thursday, Hamilton lashed out at Red Bull, alleging the team upgraded their vehicle “every weekend” in the previous season.
Moments after the finish of FP2, Sky Sports F1 host Simon Lazenby spoke with Horner about the remarks.
He asked: “Christian, we obviously had some stern conversations last week about the cost cap. We’ve arrived here and the FIA were going to announce the compliance certificates on Wednesday and whether everyone achieved them.
“That’s been kicked down to Monday. Did you get an indication of why that happened? And did you hear what Lewis (Hamilton) had to say coming into the weekend about it on that subject?”
Horner replied: “We were expecting certificates as well on Wednesday, Hoping for them on Wednesday. That’s obviously been delayed for all of the teams. The FIA has obviously taken that choice.
“We wait with interest to see what happens on Monday. But again, we feel we’ve absolutely complied with the cost cap, with the regulations and are happy with our submission. We are waiting to hear what the feedback is.”
Horner responded to the team’s comments when asked how the team was feeling as Max Verstappen nears his second world championship. He added: “The amount of noise that’s been on other topics, one can only think it’s designed to be a bit of a distraction.
“We are very happy with where we are, where our submission for the cap is and all focus on this weekend.”
According to Auto Motor und Sport, Red Bull may have exceeded the cost cap by up to £9 million ($10 mil). It is believed that the final sum may be considerably smaller, in which case Red Bull would avoid harsh penalties like point deductions.
