F1 News: Christian Horner says Red Bull saw "zero benefit" from budget cap overspending

Christian Horner defends Red Bull's position.

Christian Horner has spoken fiercely in defence of Red Bull's spending in 2021, despite the FIA's decision to hand the team a penalty for exceeding the budget cap. 

After weeks and months of speculation, the FIA has revealed the nature of Red Bull's penalty, consisting of both financial and sporting elements.

Red Bull will face a financial penalty of $7 million for exceeding the gap. Many have criticised this reprimand - because it is not taken away from the team's overall budget cap for next season. 

Considering the financial resources at Red Bull's disposal, a fine of $7 million - irrespective of how extensively they overspent in 2021 - seems quite an irrelevant penalty for the Austrian squad to deal with.

Of greater significance is the 10% reduction in Red Bull's development - to be applied for next season.

As the team first in the constructors' standings , Red Bull is already set to have the least amount of wind tunnel time in F1 for 2023. 

This FIA penalty, therefore, will further limit and restrict their development. 

Whilst this penalty is not insignificant, many have criticised the FIA's action as insufficient in deterring teams from exceeding the cap moving forward. 

Regardless, speaking to the media in Mexico City, Christian Horner defended his team's position:

"I stand by the statement there was zero benefit because the amount we want over - as I've just explained - we believe there are mitigating factors.

"If we went over because of sick pay, if we went over because we paid people that we felt weren't in the cap, in terms of cost within catering - not one penny was spent on performance of the vehicle. 

"Not one penny was spent on the performance of the car.

"I'm astounded that there are no other teams that have found themselves in this position, but good for them that eight of them were fully compliant. 

"I think, as I say, there's lessons to learn. Did we see any on-track performance? No, we didn't. 

"Are there things that we can do better from an accounting perspective? Of course, there's lessons that have been learned, but not just on our side, on all sides."