Yahoo Autos Helmut Marko Isn't Scared of the FIA
The FIA released its report on team compliance with the 2021 budget cap earlier this week. While the majority of teams made it through just fine, Aston Martin was noted for a procedural breach, while Red Bull was noted for both a procedural breach and a "minor" overspending violation. In this case, "minor" means 5 percent or less, which could be as much as $7 million. Y'know, pocket change.
In a recent interview with German-language publication F1 Insider, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said that he was basically not worried.
"We still believe that we didn't break the cost cap rule at all," Marko told F1 Insider. "Discussions with the FIA are ongoing. Let's see what finally comes out of it. ”
Marko says that one of the contentions is apparently how the team pays out employees while they're sick, which Red Bull and the FIA interpret differently. Even so, if the team was found guilty and faced some consequences, Marko didn't seem bothered. See, he thinks the FIA doesn't really have the appetite to truly punish them for a minor infraction, let alone a major one.
"Rumors that Max could lose his world title in 2021, for example, are complete nonsense," Marko said. "The past has shown that even extreme violations of the regulations were punished very mildly by the FIA.”
In some cases, Marko has a point. F1 Insider says that what Marko is referring to here as a lenient punishment was when Mercedes performed a secret tire test in 2013, where it tried to fix its issues with the Pirellis, which it did. Other teams were up in arms, the FIA only excluded Mercedes from a young driver test. In 2019, Ferrari came under scrutiny for a supposedly illegal engine. The FIA made them assist in developing e-fuels, and allegedly had their fuel restricted for 2020, according to former driver Mika Salo.
Of course, there are other times when the FIA was very serious. Like in 2005 when BAR-Honda was found to be able to run its cars underweight in the race, and the team was disqualified from the San Marino GP and banned from two further races.
That said, Marko is probably right, the penalty likely won't change the driver's standing for 2021 or see a substantial fine. And that sets a dangerous precedent. If exceeding the cost cap by 5 percent results in a small fine or another inconsequential penalty, then many teams will likely exceed the cap by 5 percent in the future, expecting the same small inconvenience after the fact.
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