Christian Horner admits he is “certainly not aware” of any FIA rule violations after it was revealed that the team had gone over budget.
Red Bull and Aston Martin are suspected of exceeding F1’s budget cap in 2021. The FIA’s rule book offers a long list of potential penalties, from fines to exclusion from a championship.
According to reports, Red Bull has gone over the $145 million cap by an additional $5 million, which Mercedes and Ferrari claim could translate to up to a half-second advantage on the track.
The FIA says any breaches will be “dealt with” when they release their certificates declaring who has come in under budget next week, but Horner says he is unaware of any such issues in his team.
“Certainly not aware [of any breaches],” Horner told Sky Sports F1. “The accounts were all submitted way back in March, so it’s been a long process with the FIA.”
“Next week is when they declare the certificates. Certainly, our submission was below the cap. It’s down to the FIA to follow their process, which they’re currently doing. “
Horner was then asked if the issue was going to be a “storm in a teacup” by Martin Brundle before saying that with any new set of regulations, there were going to be differences in how the rules were interpreted and applied, but even though “there’s always going to be rumours”, he believed his team had done no wrong. “
“This cost cap business for last year, and of course, that impacts on who had extra money to spend on this year, but it’s a brand new set of regulations and a very complicated set of regulations, so how rules are interpreted and applied, inevitably is going to be subjected to debate between the teams.”
“I’m sure as the years go by, things will get tidied up, but we’re confident in our submission. There’s always going to be rumours. I’ve heard of major breaches and whatever. I’m certainly not aware of that. “
“Remember, this is the first time this has ever happened,” he said. “When we do our due diligence, we get audited anyway. It’s a similar process.
“It’s slightly bespoke to Formula 1 and clarifications have been coming even after the submissions were made, so you can see how immature the process is, but the FIA obviously [have] been working hard on it and doing the best they can.”
“Every team is theoretically subjected to it so they will have looked at every team’s submitted accounts and they’re following a process.
“We’re very confident in our submission. Anything different to that, then we’ll wait to hear from the FIA,” said Christian Horner.
