(Motorsport) Red Bull Racing have admitted to a ‘minor’ breach in Formula 1’s cost-cap, going $2.2m over the $145 spending limit for the 2021 season, resulting in a $7m fine and 10% reduction in wind tunnel time over 12 months. However, given their dominance in the 2023 season so far, it appears that Red Bull has had little to no impact from the penalty, finishing as the top two cars in the three races this season. This has prompted Scuderia Ferrari’s chief executive Fred Vasseur to say that the penalty they have received was “very light”.

Responding to Vasseur’s comments, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said “Everybody’s got an opinion and I think everybody’s free to have an opinion. The team have done a great job over the winter on limited wind-tunnel time that we’ve had to develop this car, and of course that will have an impact later into the year and on next year. So on a snapshot of three races, I think it’s still hugely premature in (terms of) this season, there’s an awful lot of racing still to go. There’s a lot of things that can change. 

“We’re hearing of big updates coming for both Ferrari and Mercedes when we get back to Europe. So we’re certainly not taking anything for granted, we’re just focused on ourselves, doing the best job we can within the constraints that we have. We’re doing the best that we can with what we’ve got and we know that it’s a tough penalty, it’s one that we’re taking on the chin and we’re applying ourselves in the best way that we possibly can.

“In the UK you’ve got seven teams within probably a 50-mile radius, so inevitably there’s going to be competition. We’ve had very low turnover of staff in our history at Red Bull, and it’s great that we’ve given talent a chance to develop and achieve great things. When they go to other teams, I’m please for Dan that he’s doing a good job, but his departure has given other engineers an opportunity and everything’s about evolution. The team we have now is even stronger than the one we had two years ago.”

Such has been Red Bull’s dominance so far that at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, Max Verstappen went from 15th to second and is currently looking unbeatable. Rivals Mercedes and Ferrari have been shocked at just how far behind they are compared to the reigning champions and will now look to bring in major upgrades before the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix (May 19-21). 

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