What punishment will Red Bull get? This athlete did lose his gold medal

There is a penalty hanging over Red Bull Racing's head and, in the worst case scenario, Max Verstappen could also face a very severe penalty if he is deprived of 2021 championship points. It is hard to imagine, but it has happened before in top international sport.

Red Bull hangs punishment over head

Red Bull went over the 2021 budget cap, coming under severe criticism. The FIA released the news late and tensions mounted. For a minor offence regarding the maximum expenditure, there is already the possibility of championship points being taken away from the driver in question during the relevant championship period. The FIA has not yet revealed what the punishment will be for Red Bull Racing, but although the chances are very slim, it is not out of the question that Verstappen could still lose his 2021 title. With a deduction of around two per cent of his total points in 2021, the Dutchman already loses the title to Lewis Hamilton.

Bolt and Verstappen soon in the same row?

Verstappen would not be the first to lose his gold medal some time later. An interesting example in which an athlete's title has been taken away is Jamaican runner Usain Bolt's Olympic gold medal. Bolt, one of the most successful runners ever, lost his gold medal for the 100 metres in Beijing in 2008, nine years later in 2017. The reason was that another runner on the Jamaican team, Nesta Carter, had been found guilty of doping.

Bolt was severely punished for a mistake made in his team (by a teammate). It was especially harrowing for the Jamaican, as the gold medal he won in 2008 was the start of a more than brilliant Olympic career for him. Indeed, with the 2008 medal added, Bolt achieved nine gold medals at the Games until 2016. The reason Jamaica was disqualified nine years later was because the International Olympic Committee, in an attempt to regain its credibility, started re-examining the results of doping tests between 2008 and 2012. The first spot therefore slid by Trinidad and Tobego.

What will the FIA do about its reliability?

It is extremely unlikely that the FIA would hand out a penalty that retrospectively stripped Verstappen's first title, but it has thus happened before on a global scale. Why Bolt's situation is interesting to compare with Verstappen's is because Bolt's also involved a team error, which disqualified the athlete. In addition, the IOC re-investigated the doping tests taken that year to restore confidence in the sports body. The IOC thus decided that disqualifying athletes almost a decade later was the right step to take.

We are still awaiting the verdict of the FIA, which must also strongly consider its credibility. What is clear is that Red Bull Racing went over the limit and a penalty is imminent. According to its own guidelines, the FIA must consider what is an appropriate punishment to go with the offence. But when it comes to credibility of the sports body, the FIA must act unambiguously, transparently and clearly. Whether they follow the example of the IOC in doing so and punish the team by taking away the athlete's title is equally a matter of wait and see. In any case, it does not seem that Formula 1 would draw as much confidence from an FIA decision similar to the IOC's decision on Jamaica and Bolt.