Pierre Gasly ignited the news throughout the Japanese Grand Prix weekend on Oct. 7–9 with talk of his long-rumored departure from Alpha Tauri to fill in the second driver seat for Alpine at the beginning of the weekend. He ignited it again after the race with his strong criticism of the FIA’s safety practices and regulations during a safety car segment of the rainy race — a criticism that has been met with support from a number in the F1 Paddock. Combined with the confusion on how the race ended and how the points were distributed (resulting in Max Verstappen clinching his second world championship), the FIA’s handling of regulations in Japan was just like racing fans when they heard Suzuka was back on the F1 calendar: wet and sloppy. The eyes of the F1 community and the teams have never been more focused on the FIA and their decision-making choices now that it has been confirmed that Red Bull Racing breached the 2021 season’s budget cap and Aston Martin was found not guilty. This decision will show fans how the FIA will be handling investigations and penalties, as well as the rules they themselves implement in the future.
After delaying the proposed announcement on the budget allegations on Oct. 5, the FIA announced on Oct. 10 that Red Bull had committed a procedural breach and a budget overspend of around 5 per cent. The final amount is yet to be disclosed.
Red Bull’s first statement was posted on the same day and expressed the team’s “surprise and disappointment” at the findings, explaining that they have been building an appeal against the FIA’s decision, and insisting that the budget they had submitted was under the cap.
The FIA has yet to announce which of the varying punishments Red Bull will have to face as reprimands, which can range between a deduction of constructors’ and drivers’ championship points, suspension from stages of competition excluding the actual races themselves, limitations to conducting aerodynamics and testing, and finally a reduction to the team’s cost cap. Or all of them. Red Bull has since been appealing the FIA’s decision to at least come to an agreement with the governing organization for fair penalties.
What sanctions the FIA will hand out is anyone’s guess. The reality of deducting Red Bull points from the previous season and adding more to the toxic 2021 finale is probably low. However, that shouldn’t be the case. Teams and athletes across almost every sport have had championships, world records, and gold medals taken away for less blatant cheating than budget overspending and cost hiding, and the FIA, and only the FIA, should have a say in what the penalties are. No team that cheats should have a say in the magnitude of their penalty, and if Red Bull does, then the whole punishment is compromised.
What first needs to be clear is the margin of Red Bull’s overspending before a fair penalty can be handed out. It has been theorized by Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto that around the $1 million to $5 million dollar range is about equal to half a second off a lap time. Lower than $1 million to the $300 thousand range could equate to hundredths of seconds shaved off the clock. In the current meta that the FIA started to take in 2021, and even more with the 2022 cars, those fractions of seconds off have become far more important competitively and have been the decision-maker between better grid placement and pole position.
It’s fair to say that an egregious amount of overspending around the $1 million range gives a severe competitive edge. Out of the list of penalties, the deduction of the constructors’ and drivers’ points, and a budget cap reduction for the next season no matter what the final amount of the overspend should be a must. And the FIA should dole out the maximum punishment within the margin. 2021 was the first season that a budget was introduced in this modern era of F1, to stop teams from doing exactly what Red Bull has done, and gain an unfair $1 million to $7 million advantage. This is worse than on-track cheating, and the penalty for breaching budgets should be harsh, no matter how much drama and good television they bring. The budget needs to be taken seriously, no workarounds or whatever Red Bull means when they say “relevant costs.” It’s a very black-and-white issue, Red Bull went over budget, and they should be severely punished, and the FIA should launch an immediate investigation into Red Bull’s 2022 budget.
If they aren’t, and the rumour of simply a fine for Red Bull is true, Mercedes and Ferrari should just come out in 2023 with rocket cars. If there’s only a fine to be paid for overspending, there really is no point in having the constructors’ championship anymore. Let the championship under the current FIA regime go stupid and crazy until the executives and president can be replaced in 2025 with an executive board that will helm a more strict, fair, and clear FIA, and not be worried about which teams are giving them the best television ratings, instead restoring the integrity of the sport that has now been damaged.
Teryn Midzain is an English Major with ambitious goals to write movies and a full-time nerd, whose personality and eccentrics run on high-octane like the cars he loves. More importantly, Teryn loves sports [Formula One], and doesn’t care who knows. When not creating and running deadly schemes in his D&D sessions, Teryn tries to reach the core of what makes the romantic and dramatic World of Sports, the characters and people that make the events so spectacular.
