Mercedes is ahead of things and is prepared to break the budget cap if Red Bull does not receive a severe penalty.
In any case, we are one step further in the saga surrounding the break of the budget cap by Red Bull last year. At first it was rumored that Red Bull had spent considerably more than the maximum budget allowed to win the title with Max Verstappen last year. That turned out to be ‘not too bad’. When the certificates were handed out, it turned out that there was ‘only’ aminor breach‘. That means that Red Bull Racing spent a maximum of five percent, which would mean a maximum of 7.25 million dollars, last year.
Ain’t no such thing as a free lunch
Red Bull itself dismissed it as an amount that they spend annually on the free lunch for employees in Milton Keynes. At Ferrari and Mercedes, on the other hand, people think very differently. Especially with Das Haus they are very firm about that. Hamilton said earlier that every few tons not spent could have meant another update for the floor or something like that. Since the Briton lost the title by a hair, you can imagine that this haunts his head.
Minor breach is not so minor
Team boss Toto Wolff has also made it clear that, as far as he is concerned, there is no ‘slight’ breach of the rules at all. He believes that the FIA should act hard, but that the penalty will almost always be too light. Even if, says Wolff, Red Bull has spent two million extra and has to pay a ten million fine, it is still not fair.
Pain
Mercedes seems to be really alluding to the loss of results (Max’s title) or at least draconian measures that really hurt Red Bull. If not, Mercedes is even prepared to damage the budget cap itself in order to return to the front of the field. Apparently this has already been discussed internally, at least that’s how Formula Passion can report.
cheating
So Mercedes is playing hard again. But yes, actually, they do have a point. It’s a bit like using doping, spending that extra money. It just depends on how straightforward you are in determining what the punishment should be. We still suspect the FIA will let Red Bull get away with a slap on the wrist, also considering it’s ‘the first offence’. But yes, that may indeed open the door to widespread tampering with these rules…
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