FIA announces cost cap penalties for Red Bull and Aston Martin

Max Verstappen, however, will get to keep his 2021 title.

The final verdict on the cost cap breach has been put out by the FIA. Red Bull has been handed a $7 million fine and a 10 per cent reduction in wind tunnel testing time for next season. They will serve it as punishment for breaching last year's $145 million budget cap. Red Bull took the accepted breach agreement (ABA) offered to them by the FIA, meaning the penalty cannot be appealed.

The FIA found Red Bull had been in breach of the cap by £432,652 ($0.5 million) once an unclaimed UK tax credit of £1.4 million ($1.6 million) was taken into account. It means that Red Bull's breach of the cap last year, minus the unclaimed tax credit, was by 0.37 per cent.

FIA's statement

The FIA said, “Red Bull Racing was found to be in breach, however, the Cost Cap Administration recognised that Red Bull Racing has acted cooperatively throughout the review process and has sought to provide additional information and evidence when requested in a timely manner, that this is the first year of the full application of the Financial Regulations and that there is no accusation or evidence that RBR has sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in a fraudulent manner, nor has it wilfully concealed any information from the Cost Cap Administration.”

Red Bull has been found guilty of incorrectly treating as many as 13 categories of adjusted or excluded in its 2021 cost cap submission.

Rivals wanted more brutal penalty

Red Bull's rivals called for some really harsh calls. But there is no mention of the breaching having an effect on the trophies. This means Max Verstappen's 2021 title and Red Bull's newly-won 2022 constructors' championship remain intact. Neither will it cost their spending capabilities for the coming season.

The wind tunnel penalty is significant. Red Bull is already due the least amount of wind tunnel time out of F1's 10 teams next year after winning the constructors' championship. F1's wind tunnel testing rules operate on a sliding scale, with the first-placed team getting the least and the last-placed team getting the most time to test their car the following year. It means Red Bull faces the prospect of having limited development of its race car next season.

Rivals wanted a penalty which would wipe out any advantage that the team may have gained from overspending. One rival team boss said that stripping Red Bull of a championship would have only benefitted Mercedes or Red Bull.

Limiting Red Bull's budget cap amount for a future season was another suggested punishment, but this would have likely involved making widescale redundancies. Red Bull has called a press conference for Friday morning where it is expected to fully address the budget cap overspending.

Aston Martin also fined $450k

Aston Martin was also fined $450,000 for a procedural breach of Formula One's financial regulations after failing to file accurate accounts under last year's budget cap. They have 12 cases of incorrectly excluded or adjusted costs in their 2021 submission. Just like Red Bull, this punishment has also been decided in the form of ABA so it is non-negotiable.

Williams too were found guilty but they have voluntarily sorted it out long before. Their breach was they unable to submit the cost cap submission on the deadline.