Red Bull Points Fingers After 2021 Cost Cap Controversy: "Tactical Games"

Red Bull believes other teams could be getting around the cost cap budget for the 2023 F1 season.

Helmut Marko has admitted in an interview with APA that Red Bull has made serious changes following the budget cap issues they encountered in the 2021 F1 Season. 

Red Bull Racing exceeded their budget by nearly €1.5 million during the 2021 season where their driver Max Verstappen won the F1 World Championship. This overspend resulted in an $8 million fine and a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time for the 2023 season. The Austrian racing team has taken steps internally to avoid repeating their mistakes and incurring heavy penalties in the future.

"We have learned from our past negative experience," Marko said. "We have significantly increased the number of staff in our finance department."

But before the discussion continued, he warned that other teams could manipulate the regulations to reduce the expenditure, and this will need to be looked at by the FIA and F1.

"There are now mathematical and tactical games that need to be taken into consideration," he said.

Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine chief, also expressed concerns about the budget cap, adding to the opinions held by Marko. For instance, Szafnauer points out his former Racing Point colleague, Andrew Green, who served as the technical director at Aston Martin before the appointment of former Red Bull chief Dan Fallows to that position. 

Green retained his position, but his duties were transferred to the umbrella company, Aston Martin Performance Technologies, meaning his salary won't be included in the budget for the season. It isn't a stretch to believe that this will happen more and more behind the scenes of multiple teams on the grid, allowing their highest paid staff members to be kept off the books. 

With the British team finding so much pace compared to other teams so far this weekend, it wouldn't be a surprise.