After Verstappen completed his scintillating comeback drive from the pit lane to P3, Stella wondered if the new power unit fitted in the Dutch driver's RB21 would fall under the cost cap. GPblog was able to confirm that it is included.

Speaking in Las Vegas, Red Bull's Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan claimed to have not been surprised at a team poking around the Austrian outfit's decision.

"I'm not surprised someone has to sort of roll a hand grenade into the situation," he said. "Fine. If the situation were around the other way, we could do the same.

The British engineer dismissed the idea that Red Bull tried to gain anything from any potential grey areas in the cost cap regulations: "I don't think it's a grey area. As far as I'm concerned, we justified to ourselves what we were going to do. If we're questioned on it, fine, we will justify it."

When pressed further regarding if it was to Red Bull's knowledge that the new power unit fell within the cost regulations or not, he responded: "I'm not going to answer that question because I'm not a finance regulation expert. I know roughly what we need to do and what's in and what's out.

"That would be an answer with my knowledge on it. I don't want to speculate as to how we're treating it within the financial regulations, because I may get it wrong and then I look even more of an idiot than normal. So I'll leave it at that, if I may," he concluded.

GPblog understands that McLaren did not raise concerns at the last F1 Commission meeting about whether Verstappen’s new Brazil GP engine costs were included in the cost cap.

The Woking-based outfit even consulted the FIA for clarification, and GPblog has learned that the governing body's answer was the same as the on provided by this website. Read the full story here.

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