McLaren counter Horner cost cap criticism

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has dismissed calls from Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner for the cost cap to be reviewed in the wake of his team sustaining hefty repair bills from the last two F1 grands prix.

Red Bull suffered $1.8million worth of damage to Max Verstappen's RB16B following the Dutch driver's 51g smash after making contact with Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes at the British Grand Prix.

After what unfolded at turn one in Hungary, the team again face a seven-figure sum in repairs after Valtteri Bottas' error instigated chaos that caused severe damage to both of Red Bull's cars.

McLaren is also staring at significant costs of its own as Lando Norris also retired after being hit from behind by Bottas, while Daniel Ricciardo was a victim of a separate accident caused by Lance Stroll.

Asked if he felt the cap needed to be reviewed in light of recent incidents, Seidl replied: “No, not at all.

"And I definitely will not go in the direction Christian is going, mentioning in every second sentence the cost cap and how much you get hurt by it by every accident on the track.

“In the end, that is part of the game we are in. It is down to us to manage the budget in the right way."

Seidl confirmed damage had been sustained to the new bargeboards being run for the first time in Hungary on the MCL35Ms.

Assessing the impact of the incident on his own team, Seidl added: “It will be a challenge to make sure we now have again enough parts of the new specification available for Spa [Belgian GP on August 27-29].

"But on the other hand, we have a great team back home on production and on the engineering side so I am confident we can recover from what happened.”

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