Horner Red Bull and FIA's punishment: 'Best to settle begrudgingly'

Red Bull Racing has long maintained that it was not guilty of exceeding its budget cap. Yet the Austrian racing stable signed an Accepted Breach Agreement on Wednesday. On Friday, the penalties came out, and at a press conference called by Red Bull, Horner reacted for the first time to how the whole process has been in recent weeks.

Red Bull must pay a fine of seven million euros to the FIA, although this will not affect the amount of money Red Bull is allowed to spend on building and developing the RB19 in 2023. Furthermore, Red Bull has received a seven per cent deduction in terms of wind tunnel time. Finally, the Milton Keynes-based team has to cover all costs incurred in the last few weeks of the process.

Horner stated at the press conference, in the presence of Motorsport.com, that in his view it is strange that Red Bull was informed of irregularities so late. "In April and May, FIA was already watching, but we heard nothing. At the end of September, we only heard about the 13 points. We clarified those, but in Singapore really shocked by accusations and details that competitors knew. That indicated a leak." Indeed, at that time, no official investigation had been launched into Red Bull either.

Horner finds Red Bull punishment very high

The 48-year-old top executive calls the US$7 million fine a "huge amount" and calls the penalties overall "significant". According to Horner, Red Bull having less time in the wind tunnel will cost lap time, perhaps up to half a second." “The more draconian punishment is the sporting penalty which is a 10% reduction in the use of our wind tunnel. Some people have said that is an insignificant penalty. Let me tell you now, it is an enormous amount & represents anything between 0.25-0.5 sec of lap time", he is quoted by Jenna Fryer.

Horner considers it a "drastic" measure, especially when you consider that the actual offence was only just over £400,000. "It will affect our performance on the track next year."

Red Bull was some 3.7 million below the budget cap, according to its own calculations. It was assumed that catering, for example, would not count, but this turned out to be the case. "Something as a Red Bull policy, we viewed it as an excluded cost. Aggressive? We felt acceptable. The FIA found that food was not excluded. 1.4 million pounds was in food, drinks, coffees...."

Red Bull settles with FIA

Given the amount of comments and whining in the paddock, Horner said the best option was to "begrudgingly settle". "We've chosen to accept it, we take it on the chin. Now it's time to put it to bed."

It was in nobody's interest to let this matter drag on for very much longer: "We accept that the regulations are new, but there is still a lot of work to do. An arbitration case could have ensured that this could have gone on for another 12 months. We are now closing the book," Horner said.