Red Bull was fined $7 million and reduced wind tunnel testing time by 10% for next season as punishment for breaching last year’s $145 million budget cap.
Red Bull has accepted the accepted breach agreement (ABA) offered by the FIA, which means the penalty cannot be appealed.
FIA finds Red Bull breached limit of £432,652 ($0.5m) after unclaimed UK tax credit of £1.4m ($1.6m) ) is taken into account.
It means that Red Bull’s breach of the cap last year, minus the unclaimed tax credit, was 0.37%.
In the FIA’s ruling, it said: “There is no accusation or evidence that Red Bull Racing sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly or fraudulently, nor knowingly conceal it. any information from the Cost Cap Administration.”
While they have never been seriously threatened, it means Max Verstappen’s 2021 title and Red Bull’s newly won 2022 holders’ championship are still intact.
The wind tunnel penalty is substantial. Red Bull had the least wind tunnel run time among F1’s 10 teams the following year after winning the constructors’ championship.
F1’s wind tunnel testing rules operate on a sliding scale, where the first-place team receives the least and the last-placed team has the most time to test their car next year.
That means Red Bull faces the prospect of limiting its racing car development next season.
Red Bull’s rival teams wanted a penalty that would wipe out any advantage the team might have gained from overspending. A rival team boss told ESPN that stripping Red Bull of the championship would only benefit Mercedes or Red Bull.
Limiting the amount of Red Bull’s budget cap for a future season is another suggested penalty, but this could involve creating massive redundancies.
Red Bull held a press conference on Friday morning where it is expected to fully address spending over the budget cap.
Aston Martin was also fined $450,000 for breach of procedure with Formula One’s financial regulations after failing to report the correct accounts under last year’s budget limits.
The penalty isn’t as heavy as Red Bull’s because Aston Martin didn’t go over the budget limit.
