How Red Bull and Max Verstappen could be disqualified - F1 Cost Cap explained

Both of Max Verstappen's world championships are under threat after his team allegedly breached the cost cap in 2021 by over £1.5m

Anyone who feels the conclusion to the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship finale in Abu Dhabi was a farce may just feel more unjustified since the release of FIA’s cost cap report yesterday. Aston Martin were discovered to have made a procedural breach, whereas Red Bull had a procedural breach and minor overspend breach.

This was all that was announced at the release of the cost cap, and after a five-day delay on the release of the report, pundits and reporters in Formula 1 are once again questioning the authorities who have once again provided a lack of clarity on such an important matter, so much so that Max Verstappen’s win in Suzuka to clinch his second world championship has been overshadowed by the recent news.

Red Bull have shown utter undeniable class this season, winning 14 races as a constructor, with everyone undoubtedly praising Adrian Newey and all those working on the car in Milton Keynes. However, doubt will be casted at the legitimacy of this championship, and arguably last years already controversial championship due to the breach. According to the FIA, a minor breach is ‘up to 5%’ overspending. Depending on placement in the championship, each team is given a cost cap which was introduced in 2019 to bring the teams closer together and reduce the cash rich teams, such as Mercedes and Red Bull using their financial advantage over teams such as Williams and Haas who struggle to get investment; practically the aim is to create greater fairness and equality. It is rumoured that Red Bull have spent an extra $1.5-2m and could be up to $7m based on the 5% of their allocated funds for the year, $145m.

This is a hugely serious topic, and could come with massive penalties, or Red Bull could come away with something quite light. Penalties could range from a financial deduction (including reduction of the cost cap in the following years), reprimands, or most significantly deduction of championship points. Interestingly, directly after the announcement of the cost cap in 2019, F1 Managing Director Ross Brawn said: “If you fraudulently breach the financial regulations, you will be losing your championship. So it has serious consequences if teams breach these regulations”. This certainly creates intrigue as to what punishment is given, as it feels the FIA need to set a precedent on the seriousness of this breach, and a light punishment could cause havoc in years to come if spending an extra few million and gaining a few tenths for a better chance at winning the championship may become something normal.

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff told Sky Sports on Friday that last year Mercedes AMG-Petronas had to make 40 people redundant over the winter to remain within the cost cap, highlighting the severity of the breach. Furthermore, Lewis Hamilton was explaining how the last Mercedes upgrade in 2021 was in Silverstone, which always lays about halfway through the season, and described it as ‘painful’ whenever Red Bull would bring upgrades in 2021 beyond that point when Mercedes simply could not afford to do this. This begs the question – Did Red Bull cheat to win the 2021 world championship with Max Verstappen with upgrades that exceeded the cost cap? It must be taken into consideration that upgrades cost between $250k-$500k – and can be worth between 2 and 3 tenths of a second normally, which would’ve been enough to keep with Mercedes.

Red Bull have a right, and likely will protest the breach, as Helmut Marko has said the cost cap has been interpreted differently between the FIA and Red Bull. Meanwhile, Mercedes and Ferrari will unquestionably be pushing the regulatory body for severe punishments to Christian Horner’s team. The true question is – just how severe will the FIA wish to punish the team that has dominated the whole of 2022?