Sanction against Red Bull is’ draconian ‘, says Christian Horner
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Red Bull reached an agreement with the FIA regarding the violation of the Formula 1 budget ceiling it committed last year – which was only 1.6 percent over the imposed limit. However, it did not avoid a penalty with a fine of seven million dollars and additional restrictions on the length of use of the wind tunnel and the CFD over the next 12 months.
Christian Horner, team leader, spoke of a heavy admonition, starting with a financial point of view, as quoted by the Motorsport.com website: “I heard people report today that it is an insignificant amount. I can say now that it’s a huge amount. This represents something like between a quarter and a half second of time per lap. This comes in from now on, has a direct effect on next year’s car and will be in effect for a period of 12 months. ‘
On the other hand, Red Bull saw its aerodynamic test time reduced by ten percent, which, according to the official, will have an impact on the ability to perform on the track: ‘By winning the constructors’ title, we become victims of our own success, in addition to that ten percent, having five percent of disadvantage or incremental handicap compared to the second and third place finishers. Those ten percent actually placed will have an impact on our ability to perform on the track next year.”
For Horner, Red Bull could be at a disadvantage not only in 2023, but also in 2024, assuming that it will take even harder work to overcome the limitations
— it gives our opponents an advantage, which is why they were pushing so hard for a draconian penalty. We’re going to have to work incredibly hard in the time we have available and we’re going to have to be efficient with our time, we’re going to have to be efficient with the work we choose to do in our wind tunnel. I have total confidence in our team, in the capacity of our team. I think they demonstrated it over and over again. ‘