'Six teams have already gone over this season's budget cap'

According to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, six of the 10 teams have already exceeded this season's budget cap. He tells Auto, Motor und Sport. Marko would not say whether Red Bull is also among those six teams.

It was the big soap opera of this season in Formula 1: the 2021 budget cap. The FIA ruled that Red Bull Racing had exceeded this limit, and although Max Verstappen's team insists it does not agree with the FIA's reading, an agreement has been reached on a penalty. Red Bull will be fined seven million pounds and allowed to spend 10 per cent less time in the wind tunnel to test next year's car.

Whether the penalty was a sufficient deterrent we will have to wait and see. Most team bosses were critical of the FIA and thought it should be tougher, while the verdict from the Red Bull camp was that the punishment was just too harsh. However, Marko expects the same issue to resurface next year.

New offences would come due to inflation

Marko is convinced that this year the budget rules have been flouted by a majority of teams. The reason, he says, would be inflation. Partly due to the war in Ukraine and subsequent rising energy prices, inflation has increased extremely all over the world, and so Formula 1 is also suffering from it.

"Inflation is something that was not calculable to that extent," says Marko. "Especially when it comes to energy costs. I think the current status is that six teams are over this season's budget cap."