Ferrari concerned by "very limited" Red Bull penalty

Sam Hall
Saturday 29 October 2022 12:20 - Updated: 09:42

Ferrari racing director Laurent Mekies has claimed Ferrari is "not happy" with the "very limited" FIA penalty handed to Red Bull for breaching budget cap regulations.

The championship-winning team has been fined $7million and hit with a 10 per cent reduction in its wind tunnel and CFD testing time after being found guilty of a minor infringement of the financial regulations.

In agreeing to an Accepted Breach Agreement [ABA] Red Bull was able to remove penalties including a points deduction from both the 2021 drivers' and constructors' championships from the table.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described the penalty as "draconian" in a media briefing on Friday and offered no apology for the breach.

But Ferrari believes that Red Bull has gotten off lightly for a £1.864m overspend [1.6 per cent] as well as a procedural infringement.

READ: Horner "on the ropes" as Wolff and Brown will "keep punching" - Brundle

“We have talked a lot in recent weeks about what one can do with half a million more, or a million or two or three,” Mekies told Sky Italia.

"Two million [euros] is a significant amount and we have given our opinion several times on this topic.

“We at Ferrari think that this amount is worth around a couple of tenths [per lap] and so it’s easy to understand that these figures can have a real impact on the outcome of the races, and maybe even a championship.

“As for the penalty, we are not happy with it, for two important reasons.

"The first is that we at Ferrari do not understand how the 10 per cent reduction of the ATR can correspond to the same amount of lap time that we mentioned earlier.

“Furthermore, there is another problem in that, since there is no cost cap reduction in the penalty, the basic effect is to push the competitor to spend the money elsewhere.

“It has total freedom to use the money it can no longer spend on use of the wind tunnel and CFD due to the 10 per cent reduction, on reducing the weight of the car, or who knows what else.

“Our concern is that the combination of these two factors means the real effect of the penalty is very limited.”

F1 'must move on' from budget cap furore

Reports of Red Bull's breach emerged during the Singapore Grand prix weekend with the team publicly maintaining its innocence and only "begrudgingly" accepting the outcome.

Despite disagreeing on the nature of the sanctions, Mekies concurred with Horner that a line must now be drawn under the matter and warned F1 cannot afford a repeat scenario next year.

“We have no choice but to move on and I believe it is very important for us and also for the whole of F1 and the fans, that for 2022, we do not have to wait until next October to see the outcome of the accounts,” he added.

“We will support the FIA to do what is needed to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible.”