Red Bull to follow up "extremely upsetting" accusations

Ian Parkes
Saturday 5 November 2022 07:00

Christian Horner has confirmed Red Bull is committed to pursuing the accusations made against the team by its rivals with regard to the budget cap breach.

Red Bull was found guilty of exceeding the cap by the FIA's Cost Cap Administration which punished the team by imposing a $7million fine and a 10 percent cut in its wind tunnel and CFD programme over the coming year.

News of the breach first came to light, however, across the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, much to the surprise of all at Red Bull given the findings of the CCA had yet to be made public and discussions with the body are highly confidential.

Rumours surfaced that Red Bull had exceeded the cap by a significant seven-figure sum, only for its breach to fall under the 'minor' category at less than $2m.

Horner said at the time Red Bull was considering its legal options with regard to the claims being made by its rivals, and is now looking to pursue the matter.

"Obviously, the accusations made in Singapore were extremely upsetting for every single member of our team, our partners, and everybody involved with Red Bull," said Horner.

"Any form of leakage is hugely worrying so it's something we expect to be followed up."

Horner stays mum on Rao

Horner, however, refused to point an accusing finger at Shaila-Ann Rao, the interim FIA secretary general for motorsport.

Rao previously worked for Mercedes as a legal advisor and a close aide to Toto Wolff before returning to the FIA earlier this year after a prior two-and-a-half year spell from 2016 to 2018 as the governing body's legal director.

It was Rao who informed Horner his team had been found guilty of exceeding the cap just 90 minutes after Max Verstappen had won his second drivers' title at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Given Rao's involvement, asked whether he felt the proceedings had been above board, Horner simply replied: "It's not my position to talk about that."