Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff is pleased that Red Bull has been penalized by the FIA for exceeding the 2021 budget limit, although he believes the penalty could have been a little higher. Red Bull has to pay seven million US dollars and gets ten percent deducted from its development time for a year.
“I think that every penalty is not enough for us. It will be too much for them. But what I see as positive is the strong leadership,” Wolff told the English-language edition of ‘Motorsport.com’.
“Nothing was swept under the carpet. The FIA stood by the process. And I think it’s very encouraging to see how things are being implemented, even though the leadership has only been in office for ten months,” praises the Austrian and describes the evaluation and monitoring of the budget limit as “stable”.
But that doesn’t mean that the Mercedes boss agrees with everything. If it was up to him, there would no longer be a subdivision into minor and major violations. “I think an infraction is an infraction and that’s how it should be handled,” he says.
punishment hard enough?
Red Bull was guilty of a minor violation, which the racing team accepted. The question that many are currently asking is: how severe is the punishment for Red Bull?
“I think in absolute terms $7 million is a lot of money, but considering the investment Red Bull is making in the power unit and in the team, it might not be that much,” said Wolff.
The bigger problem could be the lower development capacities. “Any reduction in wind tunnel time will have an adverse effect,” he says. “How detrimental is difficult to assess at this point in time.”
Nevertheless, the Mercedes motorsport boss believes that the sum of the penalties has a deterrent effect. In addition, there is image damage that no racing team wants to expose itself to. “Because of course we live in a transparent and lawful world. Our shareholders or partners demand compliance, and in this respect it’s just not up to date anymore.”
No understanding of explanations
However, he cannot understand the explanations given by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner: “Nine teams followed the rules and stayed below the upper limit,” says Wolff. “Formula 1 is a sport where little things make the difference. If something else is claimed, that’s stupid talk. There is no mitigating factor.”
But the chapter is now closed for Wolff. “At least I hope so,” he says on ‘Sky’. “But now that we’ve got the 2021 numbers finalized, let’s see what they do with the 2022 filing. I think they have every interest in doing it properly this time.”
“Hopefully that’s a deterrent that it doesn’t happen again – with any other team.”