Red Bull Fined $7 Million, Loses Development Time as Cost Cap Overrun Penalty
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Red Bull has been fined $7 million and will lose 10 percent of its remaining access to wind tunnels and computational fluid dynamics through the next 12 months as a penalty for overspending during the cost-capped 2021 season, Formula One announced Friday.
The loss of R&D time is the biggest hit. As the 2022 constructor's champion, Red Bull already had just 70 percent of the wind tunnel and CFD time allotted to the lower-finishing teams with the most access. Now, that number is down to 63 percent of what competitors will get over the next 12 months. That greatly reduces not only the team's ability to develop a new car for the 2023 season but their ability to adjust it and improve it in-season, a potentially major disadvantage.
The fine, on the other hand, is just money. Since the number does not apply to the team's cost cap, Red Bull has in part been punished for over-spending in a rule designed to save smaller teams money with a fine it will have no problem paying.
Red Bull's final total violation was a spend of $2.2 million over the cost cap, but an incorrectly applied tax credit would have reduced that number to $500,000. These are small over-runs, but that $500,000 represents the only over-run by any team on the grid that cannot be explained away.
Aston Martin, which was under investigation for committing a much smaller infraction more easily explained away by tax issues, has been fined $450,000. That team will not lose any of its allotted wind tunnel or CFD time in 2022.
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