The team principal of Red Bull, Helmut Marko, has dismissed speculation that Max Verstappen would forfeit his 2021 world championship as “complete nonsense” after the team was found guilty of a “minor overspending” of the 2021 budget cap.
Red Bull was found to be in the wrong for a “minor financial overspending” of the 2021 cost cap and is currently awaiting its punishment as the FIA deliberates on what penalties to impose on them. It might result in a loss of points for the Drivers’ and/or Constructors’ World Championship.
After a contentious last-lap overtaking in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen defeated Lewis Hamilton to win the dramatic final race of the previous season by an eight-point difference.
However, Marko believes that the team hasn’t breached the cost cap as he reiterated Red Bull’s claim from Monday by saying that: “in the past, extreme violations of the regulations were punished very mildly by the FIA.”
Per F1-Insider, he added: “I don’t want to say too much, just this much. We still believe that we didn’t break the cost cap rule at all.”
“Discussions with the FIA are ongoing. Let’s see what finally comes out of it.
“As I said we are still not aware of any guilt, which is why discussions with the FIA are still ongoing. But rumors Max could lose his World title in 2021, for example, are complete nonsense.
“The past has shown that even extreme violations of the regulations were punished very mildly by the FIA.”
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The investigations revealed that they spent more than the £114 million cost cap, but because the violation did not exceed the 5% “major breach” benchmark of £5.7 million which makes it unlikely for last season’s World Championship to be stripped from Verstappen owing to deduction of points.
Red Bull declared in a statement that the findings had left them “surprised and disappointed,” emphasizing that their “2021 submission was below the cost cap limit.”
They continued in their statement: “We need to carefully review the FIA’s findings as our belief remains that the relevant costs are under the 2021 cost cap amount.
“Despite the conjecture and positioning of others, there is of course a process under the regulations with the FIA which we will respectfully follow while we consider all the options available to us.”
Christian Horner stated on Monday morning that he was “very confident” in Red Bull’s application whilst the team celebrated Verstappen’s second world championship following a bizarre conclusion to the suspenseful Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.
And *if* the overspend is shown to be material and thereby the 2021 car was illegal, what should the punishment be?