Mercedes is prepared to breach Formula 1’s budget cap if Red Bull isn’t issued a severe penalty, team boss Toto Wolff has warned.
Earlier this week, the FIA confirmed that Red Bull was guilty of a “minor” overspend of last year’s budget cap, which was set at $145 million,
Aston Martin was also found to have exceeded the cap, however the Silverstone-based squad fell under the category of a “procedural” breach.
Red Bull expressed surprise over the FIA findings, asserting that its submissions fell under the cap.
It is not clear what punishment the FIA will deliver Red Bull, with potential penalties ranging from fines to championship expulsion.
Although it is not known how much Red Bull exceeded the cap by, it is believed that it will only face a minor punishment due to it being a “minor” breach.
However, Mercedes team boss Wolff says that his squad would be willing to pay a fine if it meant gaining an advantage by overspending the budget.
“If Red Bull had overspent by two million, they could close the matter by paying the FIA five times, therefore 10 million,” Wolff is quoted by Corriere dello Sport, via Formula Passion.
“And in any case it would not be fair because it would sanction the right to cheat by paying a fine.
“Mercedes have already talked about it and, if this were really the point of failure, Mercedes is ready to plan extra budget and related fine to recover performance and return to the top.”
Wolff has previously asserted a violation of the budget cap is a “heavyweight” matter for Formula 1.
The sport introduced the budget cap last year for the first time in a bid to level the playing field between the teams.
Ferrari has called for a severe penalty for any type of breach, regardless of the illegal figure.
As if they haven’t broken it already. Mercedes are the biggest cheats in the history of the sport. Not least by dint of employing a driver who deliberately attempted to kill an opponent, which was obvious to any impartial viewer, even though they tried to deny it. But now, we all know that any future cost cap infringement which is revealed is deliberate, because the typically Austrian leader Wolff has announced it. Therefore there will be no minor infringement defence applicable, and total disqualification will be the only acceptable punishment.
lol, you’re fucking delusional
You’re delusional if you think a gigantic corporation like Mercedes-Benz (or half the grid for that matter) are abiding by a silly and non-policeable “cost cap” that was created with no penalties designed ahead being imposed. You’re also delusional if you think it’s possible for a “cost cap” to actually work, as if a company like Mercedes-Benz can’t simply shift money around from one conglomerate to another. And do pray tell why are the FIA just now finding out about a spending breach from a year ago, only after Toto Wolff talked about it publicly, when major former Mercedes-Benz employees are now in higher-up positions within F1 and the FIA? Do they not have calculators at the FIA to figure this stuff out before the start of the next season? And if Red Bull are actually guilty, why would they have encouraged an investigation? Guilty parties don’t typically encourage investigations.
But but but Mercedes lol you red bull fans are as bad as trump supporters. No need for proof just throw bullshit out there to take away from the fact that red bull cheated. Just switch out Mercedes for Democrats and it’s the same dumb song. Get a clue
As an impartial fan to both red bull and Mercedes what is the point of a cost cap if you’re just going to pay a fine and the fact you cheated and exceeded the cap doesn’t have any long-term consequence? Any other sport there is a cost cap/salary cap if you exceed said cap you pay a penalty. Whether that be a spending budget for the next year or penalty to your position in the standings etc
I think a fine would be effective if it’s sizeable and comes out of the following season’s budget for that team.
Maybe its RedBull that can not add up. It will take a long time to look into all money used by the companys for this one sport. And separated. The cost of development from the cost of development on a different formula. And maybe Red Ball have used the development of one formula to do development on f1 parts ie : breach. Ever way if thay have over spent even by £500.000 thay shod be hevaly punished. Strip of all championship titles for that year both Driver and World. As one wing, tip ,one change to a mirror casting, or even change to a wheel nut can have a big change to a race outcome when thay are in hundreds of a second. As for Horner he can not say I will not be part of this or that as it shows ome one has something to hide. The best way to try and hide something is to look like your not hiding something. But I can see where Toto is coming from all hes saying is “if thay can cheet we all can ” no different to some one see some one speeding on the road and say o well I will speed to .
That or fucking completely insane! lol
Done watching the WWE motorsport they call Formula One
Are you needing people to care?
Dami,
As dvsone rightly said, you are absolutely delusional. What reality are you even living in where you can make the least impartial statements possible and then talk about ‘any impartial viewer’. You clearly don’t care anything for impartiality.
You first claim ‘Mercedes are the biggest cheats in history of the sport’, yet this claim of yours has no backing.
Where is your evidence for this? Cite some examples. You won’t be able to. All you’ll have is more trumped up claims to suit your anti-Mercedes narrative.
Then you suggest that Sir Lewis Hamilton wanted to murder Max Verstappen. You state ‘deliberately’ as if Lewis was intent on Max dying. Now this is simply crazy and if you can’t see that then how do you expect anyone, even those who also are not Mercedes fans, to lend you any credibility at all??
This suggestion of murder is ludicrous. I could easily say the same for when Max rammed Lewis out of the race in Monza 2021 to prevent him winning. Had it not been for the Halo, Lewis could have died when Max’s car wheel hit Lewis on the head.
As much as I despise Red Bull and think Max was a dirty driver at times in 2021 and claimed the title illegitimately because Masi was influenced by Red Bull’s Jonathan Wheatley and broke the Sporting Regulations twice, I still would never claim that Max would deliberately try and kill another driver.
Do you read your post back and think your being objective and rational? You’re not.
Get a grip of your emotions.
Which planet are you on? Zanussi?
Good question
Is it your ass talking or ya muff
Really! Where are the proofs? Your words?
Obviously a red bull fan girl
Every dollar spent is in a bid to score points. There is only 1 fine that has teeth: points. Deduct points on a sliding scale that really hurts. AND make it so that overspend is carried into next season as an ongoing balance. If you overspend by $1m, that’s, say, 10 points, driver and constructor, and you start next season $1m down on your budget.
delusion is treatable
Wow dami you should stop watching f1 you clearly have no idea what you’re watching or talking about. That’s the dumbest comment I’ve seen and that’s saying a lot.
👍🏾
Until clear details are published, everything is pure speculation. The Budget cap is there for a purpose, if it is not adhered to, it becomes useless. When a famous driver receives a fine of 22, 000 dollars for wearing a nose stud, one realizes how important breaking rules can be. At this point in time, no one knows what advantage has been gained by this breach of Financial Rules. if the reports I have read hold any substance, the terms are so ambiguous that it becomes difficult to determine if they relate to a performance advantage, or a general overall overspend.
At nearly 84 years of age I have been an F1 fan for more years than I care to remember, whether live, or on TV, Cinema, or even Radio, courtesy of Murray Walker. I have been lucky enough to have lived close enough to Silverstone to have seen famous drivers in all kinds of motor sports. In the current batch of F1 drivers there are some really excellent ones.
I have to be honest though, this season the current champion Max Verstappen has had little to contend with in terms of competition, nothing like Singapore 2017 when four leading drivers took themselves out in a collision that was deemed to be a Racing Incident, Previous years GP’s seemed to have been more competitive, yet another reason to determine if there has been any advantage gained by the current Budget breach.
Damn you didn’t need to tell us you’re 84, the fact your mushed brain produced this comment is proof enough.
From the content of your response I suspect you are still in Primary School, where, hopefully you will learn a number of things:-
1. Don’t talk to strangers.
2. Respect your elders.
3. Don’t get into discussions about a subject you have yet to learn.
4. When you resort to insults, it is a clear indication you have already lost the argument.
Never mind, you will learn sooner or later. I the meantime have a nice day!
Bravo. Al
Set him straight.
Well said. Good to hear from a grown up occasionally.
Sorry. My reply below
“Well said. Good to hear from a grown up occasionally” was meant for BigAl.
Carol, I don’t think anyone would’ve mistaken your comment to have been towards “buttstrutt”
What about a 10% penalty of the original budget cap PLUS the amount of the overspend = a budget cap ‘adjustment’ for them the following year which would reduce their budget even more. Plus a 10% reduction in constructor points. This would mean that an overspend one year would bite them in the but the next year. I also am not a fan of penalizing the driver, so constructor points being taken away from a team I think is a must.
What would be the purpose of limiting their budget further? Do you understand that they didn’t follow the budget requirements? Lower it, remove it whatever.. they have no reason to follow it.
If a drivers team cheats to give him a car that is faster on every circuit, how can it be a sporting event to watch them repeatedly win? Drivers points must be deducted if the team have broken a rule to make it much faster. Its ludicrous to only think constructors points will be targeted. Cheats should not prosper in any categories. Make it right for once FIA.
Agree. If an athlete takes a banned performance enhancing drug (5% extra investment?!) they could face a lifetime ban!
The minimum point reduction for driver needs to be 25 and for constructors needs to be 50. The reality is season-long enhancement is likely worth many more points in both for a top team.
You are correct Greg and if you look at any other sport where budgets or salary caps are breached , they are disqualified..
The ongoing advantage of additional money spent on R&D reflects in ongoing advantage which has led to a major advantage in 2022.
Redbull should be disqualified for the 2021 season, they should be heavily fined along with driver and constructors points deduction. It will be interesting to see Redbulls expenditure for this season? If they hav gone over then boy oh boy what a mess!!!
Haha cost cap goes brrrrrrrrr
Excellent. As well Mercedes should.
Until Redbull began spending over the cap they couldn’t touch Mercedes! Wake up! Watch the replays! It’s right there! The only way Rebull ever won anything was when they cheated! It started in Abu Dabi! There has never been an F1 race where the safety rules were changed on the last freaking lap! And then all of the sudden no one can catch Redbull on the straits?? Really…….Just like that??? #Red Bullshit!
Merc rear wing goes flap flap
Red Bull front wing goes flex flex
Another toxic F1 thread. Please be kind and respectful people.
If you overspend, you lose 2x the drivers and constructors points for that year and 1x for the next year. You also lose whatever you went over for 2x for one year and 1x for one year. Points lost determined by (cap / spending) x points
Even with cheating on the cap RedBull still needed to be gifted the title in the final race of the season. I’ve had it with F1 I prefer to watch something more real and honest, off to watch WWE now!
Toto and all teams agreed 5%…..$7.25…. is a “minor” breach, now they say, what, $1 mil = .5 second…..lofl.
Toto wishes they could gain .5 sec for $1 mil on their dog car, FFS the season is 75% done and they still don’t know exactly why their car does what it does….LOFL.
Hint #1: Merc has less ground effect downforce than the others because of their zero sidepod design, and has to make up for it with more wing than the others.
Hint #2: Wing drag is higher than ground effect body drag.
Now that Toto has said he will know knowingly overspend the cap rules will be made tighter.
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if FIA releases all teams finances(I seriously doubt they will…..proprietary info/privacy) and it reveals RB spent the same or less on the car/racing than all other teams, and the overspend WAS on non – car/racing stuff…..meaning no $ advantage on the car/racing. Newey is an aero genius so it stands to reason he didn’t have to spend the same $$ discovering concepts/cause & effects the others did.
F1 has gotten themselves in another mess thru their ambiguous rules….perhaps they should have had a simple chart of overspend v point deductions/$ deductions etc. for the year audited. They cannot deduct points/etc for the following year because they took this long to audit last season…that is the dumbest thing and a situation they put themselves in – they at least need to have audits done before the next season begins, however even if they do that competitors can claim…..”they overspent on the next seasons car”!!
This is not a well thought out cost cap.
The only comment made with clarity of events based on the information available to us.
Perhaps if the FIA is looking at retrospective punishments they should go back and look at budgets of dominant teams winning year-after-year for the last 10 years.
Lets please everyone regarding budget cap breach
Lewis wins Drivers Title in 2021
Red Bull gets 20 million Euro fine taken from 2023 Red Bull budget
Toto is correct with his statement and Red Bull knew they had been caught, but I want to get to another point. The F1 leader Ross Brawn, who himself was a team principal, in 2004 these were the headlines….Ferrari’s technical director Ross Brawn promised on Friday to hunt down paddock rumourmongers who suggested ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix that the Italian team are cheating. Can you see, although not the same words, the likeness of behavior with that of the Red Bull principal.
In the UK, many years ago, shops didn’t open on Sundays, or suffer a fine, then big box stores came along and started opening on Sundays and found it was worth paying the fine as it was small price to pay, against the profit they were making and this is why Totos statement is correct, unless F1 show their teeth and make it, that no team will want to do, what Red Bull have done. That is in the hands of Ross Brawn, remember him?