Red Bull thinks it will still feel the punishment from the FIA.
Last year there was a lot of fuss about the fact that Red Bull had broken the budget cap in Formula 1. That is of course not useful in the first year that it is enforced. And certainly not if you also win the championship with the extra money spent. Red Bull naturally claimed that the amount of the overage was just enough to give the poor employees in Milton Keynes a daily lunch. But competitors called on the FIA to crack down on Red Bull.
The FIA did that…not really. Ambiguity was consciously sought as to what the punishment should be. This is in view of the fact that teams would otherwise ‘calculate’ how much they would win (and lose) by taking the penalty in advance. Red Bull was ultimately fined and was further reduced in the time it can spend on developing the car in the wind tunnel.
Cynics will say ‘well that had a great effect’. After all, Red Bull is more dominant this year than ever before. To date, the team has won all races except Singapore. But Christian Horner thinks that the real pain will still be felt. Not this year, but in the near future:
Thankfully, we came out with a very strong car at the beginning of the year and we’ve been able to apply most of the development time from quite early in the season to next year’s car. So that’s been important. Well certainly, we’ve not seen the full impact yet because it obviously has compromised the amount of development that we’ve been able to do this year.
Christian Horner, already has an excuse if the RB20 is not as epic as the RB19
Well, next year, then the real blow will come. At least, according to Horner. To be honest, it will surprise us. It is to be expected that the competition will become a little closer after another hard winter to copy slog. But actually, there is not much reason to think that the balance of power will change drastically. After all, next year’s regulations are largely the same as this year’s. There is a good chance that the teams will simply continue to evolve their current cars, with perhaps some exceptions (Ferrari? Mercedes?).
In any case, the hope for Max Verstappen is that the more things change, the more they remain the same. And that Horner felt a little pain in front of the (tri)stage as only the best football players can. Whose deed…
This article Red Bull: “We will still feel the full pain of FIA punishment” first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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