FIA and Red Bull in negotiations over budget cap breach

The FIA and Red Bull Racing are in negotiations over the minor overspend breach that the team has been accused of, as it maintains it did not break budget cap regulations.

Red Bull was the only team named by the FIA as having overspent on the 2021 Financial Regulations when the governing body announced its findings over a week ago, while Aston Martin was found to be in procedural breach. Since then, there has been no further update offered, with RACER understanding negotiations are ongoing after the FIA offered an Accepted Breach Agreement (ABA) as permitted by the regulations.

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At this point, no agreement has been reached, with Red Bull insisting its submission was within the budget cap limits and did not constitute a breach of the regulations. RACER understands Red Bull is continuing to consider its legal options on the matter, and should the team not be willing to enter into an ABA as a result of its stance, it could allow the process to move onto the Cost Cap Adjudication Panel (CCAP) in an attempt to prove its innocence.

The CCAP is then permitted to deliver its own decision on whether Red Bull’s submission is worthy of punishment and what the penalty -- if any -- should be.

Red Bull has so far declined to comment while negotiations are ongoing, but team principal Christian Horner will appear in the FIA press conference on Saturday alongside McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, who wrote to the governing body earlier this week to state is belief that any breach “constitutes cheating” and calling for swift punishments.