Ferrari Chief Blasts FIA For "Marginal" Red Bull Cost Cap Penalty

Fred Vasseur hits out at the FIA for a "very low" penalty for Red Bull.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has hit out at the FIA for the penalty against Red Bull for exceeding the cost cap in 2021 being "very low". 

It was revealed during the 2022 season that Red Bull had exceeded the cost cap in 2021. They were handed a $7 million fine and a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time for the 2023 season. However, many were of the opinion that this was not enough of a punishment. 

Speaking to the press, Vasseur explained:

“I think it was not a penalty. It was very low. If you consider that basically, we will improve a bit less than one second over the season in terms of aero, you get the penalty of 10% of this, it's one tenth.

“And as it's not a linear progression, it's probably less, and you are allowed to spend this money somewhere else. But it means that for me the penalty is marginal.”

When asked to clarify if he thought the penalty wasn't strict enough or that the Austrian team had just dealt with it very well, Vasseur confirmed:

“Both, they did a good job. And still I am convinced that the penalty was very light.

“If you consider the rate of development that we have during the season, if you consider the fact that if you have a 10% balance at the end, it's not something linear, you are also putting the performance.

“Then that you can spend what you are saving on the wind tunnel, you can spend it somewhere else on the weight saving and so on.

“I'm not sure that the effect is mega. And if you consider that you have an advantage at the beginning of the season, because you spent more the year before.

“I don't want to say that they didn't do a good job, because I think honestly that they did a very good job on the car.

“I am not trying to find excuse at all. It's not this. But if you ask me if the penalty is too light, I say yes.”

The Frenchman went on to identify one of Red Bull's big advantages is their DRS system, he continued:

“They have a mega big DRS effect, bigger than everybody else. We have to understand how they're able to do something like this.

“I think it was probably even more obvious last year, but we compensated part of the gap. But we have still to improve on this.”