Christian Horner believes the absence of one-off items that impacted 2021 will keep the Red Bull Formula One team under the 2022 cost cap. However, he admits he can’t say with “100 per cent confidence” Red Bull will be safe – and hints six teams are still at risk of exceeding the 2022 cap.
The FIA confirmed on Friday of Mexico weekend that Red Bull breached the 2021 cap. The team has been fined $7 million and will have to forego 10 percent of its aero testing for the next 12 months.
The fact that the debate over the contentious points for 2021 has intensified in recent weeks and the 2022 season is almost over has inevitably led to speculation that it may be too late for the team to change approach and under the remain at this year’s ceiling, which is about $145.6 million after inflation.
However, Horner says many of the issues related to the team’s 2021 spending won’t play into the 2022 balance sheet: “The effects that we had this year or the material effects that carried over to 2022, many of these costs are one-time costs,” he says when asked about this year’s expenses.
“Whether it’s redundancy costs, exit costs or sick pay, it’s a one-time cost. We will continue to feed our employees and their costs will be shared within the limits of the cap.”
Horner: Much less accidental damage costs
Horner insists he believes the competing teams have spent more in key areas like development and accidental damage: “When I look at the pace of development in 2022, I think other teams put significantly more components on the car this year than we did .”
“And if you just look at the accident damage, which is also very expensive and which I think has to be looked at personally within the framework of the cap, then Max Verstappen is the driver who caused the least damage this year. As for the parts used as far as we’re concerned, we’re again at the bottom end.”
“So you can never say with 100 percent certainty that we’re comfortably within the cap, especially after the process we’ve just gone through. But we feel like there’s a lot of one-off costs included in that amount. And we are confident and hopeful that as the process of cleaning up these regulations moves forward, it will become less of an accounting world championship.”
Horner: What happens when one is five percent over?
When asked about potential penalties for future teams infractions, the Red Bull team boss hinted that some of the rivals could break the limit this year. “I think we’ve set a precedent,” he says. “And it sets a precedent for 2022.”
“And the danger for 2022 is that there could be six teams breaching the cap. Energy prices have gone up exponentially but luckily we’ve been protected from that. But there’s a possibility that multiple teams, many of whom do declared at the meetings of the Formula 1 Commission that they would exceed the upper limit this year.”
“We don’t think we’ll be violating the cap in 2022, for the reasons I’ve already explained. But these penalties set a precedent for the future. So if you take ten percent for a 0.37 percent violation [an Mehrausgaben] received, what will be the five percent violation then?”