Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says breach of F1 cost cap not worth ‘reputational damage’ after Red Bull fined by FIA

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has praised the FIA ​​for taking “robust” action against Red Bull’s Formula 1 cost cap breach and says “reputational damage” would prevent his team from making the same mistake as its rivals.

The FIA ​​announced on Friday that Red Bull’s “minor” breach of the $145 million limit in Max Verstappen’s first title-winning campaign in 2021 had resulted in a $7 million fine and a 10 percent reduction in their wind tunnel time over the next 12 months.

Wolff, who saw Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton narrowly beaten by Verstappen for the 2021 drivers’ championship, gave his reaction on Sky Sports F1 after first practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Friday.

“I think the most important thing for me is that there is robust governance,” he said. “They (FIA) didn’t bat an eyelid, they just followed the process as it went.”

Red Bull reached an “accepted breach agreement” (ABA) with the FIA ​​on Wednesday, in which the team had to admit wrongdoing, after coming in $2.2 million over the cap after the FIA ​​found 13 cases of costs wrongly excluded or adjusted.

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has dismissed suggestions the team benefited from exceeding the cost cap, saying the penalty could cost them 0.5s per lap.

The FIA ​​admitted that if a tax credit had been applied correctly, Red Bull would have been only US$0.5 million over, resulting in a 0.37 percent breach.

“They (the FIA) were absolutely good at judging,” Wolff continued. “I know how rigorous they were with all of us throughout the year. It was a difficult process.

“When I see 13 positions that were wrong, that was not the case with us.

“Overall, it’s good to see that there is a penalty, whether we think it’s too low or too high.”

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Sky F1’s Martin Brundle and Paul di Resta both believe the penalty for Red Bull’s cost cap breach is “about right”. They also reflect on whether the breach helped Max Verstappen.

When asked if the penalty was strong enough to deter Mercedes from choosing to commit an infringement in the future, Wolff claimed that “reputational damage” was as big a factor as the penalty itself.

“I think what you’re seeing is that in addition to an athletic penalty and financial penalty, there’s also reputational damage,” Wolff said.

“In a world of transparency and good governance, it’s just not anymore.

“Compliance-wise, whatever team you’re on, you’re responsible for representing a brand, your employees, your partners, and that’s why for us it wouldn’t be a business case.”

Wolff: Mercedes must exploit wind tunnel advantages

Wolff appeared to dismiss Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s explanation that the overspending had largely been caused by different “interpretations” of Red Bull’s expenditure on catering, redundancy and sick pay.

“It’s a sport of marginal gains,” Wolff said. “Whether it’s $200,000 or $2 million, ultimately everything costs performance, and we all had to cover sick pay and garden leaves and the dining hall.

“Nine teams were okay, and one team was in contention.

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Horner was in a fighting mood, arguing that their rivals owe them an apology for claims made against them over cost cap rules.

“You have to build in some leeway, you can’t take an aggressive approach at the beginning because it’s a process, it’s learning on the job.”

Horner also claimed that Red Bull’s sporting penalty, which limits their wind tunnel time, was “draconian” and could cost his team up to half a second a lap of performance.

The sliding scale for wind tunnel driving teams are allowed depending on where they finish in the previous year’s constructors’ championship means Mercedes, who look set to finish third, will have an even bigger advantage over champions Red Bull.

“I think any reduction in wind tunnel time is going to cost you some performance,” Wolff said.

“We’ve been in the fortunate situation that we won the championship (last year), so for 18 months we had seven percent less than Red Bull every six months. Overall, that’s enough, and if you look at Ferrari’s performance, they were sixth the previous year, so much more performance.

“So we unfortunately benefit from being third on the road, with 14 percent more on the leader, and then we have another 10 percent, so it’s quite a lot, but it has to be used well.”

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Here’s what to look forward to during coverage of this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Wolff also agreed with Horner that Friday’s ruling should mark the end of discussions surrounding the 2021 cost cap, where the issue has dominated the sport’s headlines for the past month.

Asked if the case is now closed, Wolff said: “I certainly hope so.

“Now we’ve closed the numbers for 2021, let’s see what they do with the 2022 submission. I think they’ll have every interest in getting it right this time.

“Hopefully it’s enough of a deterrent that it doesn’t happen again with any other team.”

Seidl: I’m not interested in Horner’s saga

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl claimed the penalty was not strong enough and appeared to question the validity of Horner’s explanations.

“I didn’t listen to it because I can imagine it was probably another story time,” said Andreas Seidl of Horner’s press conference. – I have no interest in it.

“It’s good to see that the FIA ​​did a good job in doing the audit. Nine teams did the right thing and it was confirmed that one team was clearly in contention so it’s a positive result but on the negative side, from my point of view, the penalty doesn’t match the offence. I just hope that going forward we have more severe penalties in place.”

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McClaren’s team principal Andreas Seidl has his say on the budget cap and Red Bull’s breach of it.

Seidl’s comments are the latest in a war of words between his team and Red Bull, which began with McLaren chief executive Zak Brown accusing them of “cheating”, before Horner hit back last week in Texas by claiming he was “appalled and shocked” by these comments.

Despite feeling Red Bull’s punishment was not strong enough, Seidl said he was confident the FIA’s decision would not lead to the collapse of the cost cap.

“No, not at all. I think there is absolutely no reason to trespass this year,” he said.

“We had good discussions earlier this year with all the teams, with the FIA, with Formula 1 regarding these subjects.

“That’s why the cost cap was also adjusted and it was also made clear in this meeting from all the teams, from the FIA’s side that there is no reason after these positive decisions in the interest of the sport that there is any offense at the end of this year and I just hope that if there is going to be some crime again this year, as I said before, so there must also be an appropriate punishment.”

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Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer reacts to the news of the FIA’s $7 million penalty for Red Bull’s breach of the cost cap.

Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer said the penalty was “good” and would have an appropriate impact on the Red Bulls’ performance.

“They’re marginally over from what I can tell by reading all the releases and listening to Christian,” Szafnauer said. “Over is over, for half a kilo underweight on the track we are excluded from that particular race.

“So I think the penalty is good. The process was followed and I’m happy that both the FIA ​​and Red Bull have come to their conclusion and they’re happy to move on and so are we.

“It will have an impact but not a huge impact. It’s more than 10 percent between first and last, it’s already happening we have a scale.

“It’s not insignificant but it’s not to the point where it punishes you too much.”