Red Bull budget cap penalty slated as 'not a real punishment'

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has doubled down on the notion that Red Bull's punishment for breaching the 2021 budget cap was far too lenient.

The Milton Keynes-based team came under fire for its spending in the first year of F1's budget cap, surpassing the $145million limit.

Tensions were further frayed by Max Verstappen's title victory during the season the breach was committed, plus the strong start to F1's new regulatory era despite developing late into the previous year.

As punishment for its minor breach, Red Bull was fined $7million and docked 10 percent of its aerodynamic testing allowance.

Asked if he was happy with the punishments branded, speaking in an end-of-season interview with GPFans, Steiner said: “The money one, I have no opinion because the money one is no advantage to me, it's the FIA getting seven million.

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“The technical punishment, I don't think it's a real punishment because you take away the wind tunnel [time], but you don't take away the money, so you can develop something else.

“Obviously, the wind tunnel is the best way to make the car go quicker aerodynamically, but there are other areas as well where you can make the car go quicker.

“The money which was overspent, you haven't taken that out of the budget cap coming the next year.

“You took advantage, and now you have one year less wind tunnel, which maybe had 10 percent more last year.

“It's not a real punishment because the money is still there and now you can develop something different.”

Additional reporting by Ewan Gale