Zak Brown believes Red Bull has been dealt with appropriately by the FIA for breaching the budget cap.

The McLaren CEO has praised the FIA for the way the governing body dealt with Red Bull's breach of the budget cap. Brown did not hide his criticism of the Milton Keynes-based team. The American called for harsh penalties for Red Bull when news broke out that the team had committed a small overshoot of the 2021 budget ceiling.

Cheating

Although he did not explicitly mention Red Bull's name, Brown wrote an open letter to the FIA describing any extra spending above the limit as cheating, which led to a heated press conference between the McLaren man and his Red Bull colleague Christian Horner. After much speculation, Red Bull was eventually fined $7 million and given a ten per cent reduction on their wind tunnel time for developing the car for 2023.

Choices

With the case settled, Brown praised the way the FIA, which oversaw the limits and handed out any sanctions, dealt with Red Bull. "The implementation is very difficult," Brown said in the Marshall Pruett podcast. "You better have a great CFO (chief financial officer) who understands how a Formula 1 team operates." He continued that it is a matter of making choices about where you spend your money. "Obviously you want to spend it in the absolute highest performing areas, whether it’s people, technology or what have you", the US CEO said.

For Brown, it was important to do it in an appropriate way to make sure no one exceeds the ceiling or doesn't take it seriously. The McLaren top executive concludes by saying in the podcast that he sees his dealings with the FIA as transparent and there is a lot of communication and weekly memos or updates and the governing body is constantly engaged.