Red Bull, Mercedes War of Words Heats Up Ahead of FIA Ruling

Suspense is building around the coming FIA ruling on whether any team violated Formula 1’s $145 million cost cap last year.

The sport’s governing body was planning to release its results on Wednesday, but is delaying until Monday to complete its “ongoing analysis.”

• Sky Sports reported Wednesday that there were minor violations of less than 5% of the cost cap ($7.25 million), but no team will face a severe penalty.
• The FIA gave itself latitude in treating cap violations, including fines, a loss of points, suspensions from future races, and a lower future cap.
• The cap, which dropped to $140 million this year and will be $135 million for the next three years, applies to expenses related to car parts and performance, but not to driver salaries, marketing, travel, and other business expenses.

Round 2

The coming report has caused tension between two top teams: Mercedes and Red Bull.

Previous reports suggested that Red Bull and Aston Martin violated the 2021 cap. Mercedes principal Toto Wolff said that Red Bull’s overspending was “an open secret.” His Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner firmly denied that his team breached the cap and threatened lawsuits against those who claimed otherwise.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton called for “severe” consequences for any team that went over and pointed out instances in which Mercedes had to forgo improvements that would have cost around $500,000.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured the driver’s championship over Hamilton in the last lap of the final race of 2021.