This is exactly what I was thinking but couldn’t put into words as concisely as that meme does so effectively. Weird that the focus is on “catering” when ultimately it’s all the cost items, including the engineering and the car hardware. Talk about deflection.
No, it's Horner himself who first drew attention to the budget cap by saying early in the season that Red Bull couldn't finish the year without going after budget. Following that, teams started to watch each other dirty laundry, speculating about the costs of updates, and starting rumours about over spending. Not only Toto Wolff, but also Binotto, Seidel at McLaren, Steiner at Hass, etc ... and even some drivers joined in. "I don't know how they can do that within budget", or "How many different floors have they already brought this season", and again "How can Mercedes have financed 2 different bodyworks this year?" All the budget cap has brought up to the surface is another layer of suspicion and mutual accusations of cheating. All season this has been the main topic, fuelled by the media, and stired up by not only Wolff, but also Horner and from time to time Binotto. Now that the FIA has received and examined all the teams budget, all we find are a couple of discrepencies, regarding catering, and admin errors. What was supposed to be a massive scandal comes to nothing. There won't be disqualification, demotion, exclusion or sanction of any importance. The elephant has given birth to a mouse ! Was it really worth getting excited about it? I don't think so ...
I don't like the budget cap but let's face it, money is fungible as the previous meme so ably illustrates. If a team is over the cap they are over the cap and it doesn't matter if it's for salaries, parts or doilies for the mess room. The question on my mind and the reason I started this thread is what the FIA is prepared to do to enforce the cap that all the teams agreed to.
Damn , who would have thought about making such "catering" expenses. Brilliant! No other team had such brilliant idea like RedBull. Let's wait for 2022 budget audit.
Most F-1 teams use Do& Co as their caterer. They do an excellent job and are not cheap. so I can see with all the staffing issues and the COVID-19 issues with travel that catering from forecast to what is delivered can be 30-50% higher. That is my business, so I can completely understand ... and it's not like they are using bargain basement catering. All that being said if anyone here from F-1 reads this I can get you a better deal... call me.
This is how I imagine C. Horner ordering penne all'arrabbiata in the Death Star, err, RB cafeteria, LOL…
How i see the "catering" issue ... For sure, each team established a "budget" early in the year, with several categories or "buckets". The total was not exceed $145M. It would seem that (based on all reasonable info so far), compared to the budget categories established early in the season, Red Bull over-spent in the catering and sick-leave buckets. Red Bull is probably of the opinion that they did not over-spend, and will either appeal or pay a fine and get on with life. NOW, it's CERTAINLY quite reasonable to ask: was there "funny business" in the Red Bull accounting? Shuffling "between" the buckets, perhaps? Maybe hiding other expenses in car development, for example, that they did NOT disclose to the FIA? The answer is: OF COURSE it's possible! The FIA conducted no audit of their own, no 3rd-party review (paid by anyone other than the individual teams, that is), so we may never know. BUT ... it's been my point for several posts, that those same questions could be asked of ANY team. With no independent audit, we are left with no choice but to take the teams' word for their expenses. We have no choice but to accept that Red Bull's over-spend was indeed minor, and it was on indeed on catering and sick-leave ... otherwise, we aren't in a position to accept that ANY other team actually satisfied the budget cap! In short: any questions asked about Red Bull's accounting, are equally applicable to any other team. This is circus side-show, nothing more. I'll accept that Red Bull over-spent by a minor amount, and I'll accept whatever fine the FIA imposes. But it's just not reasonable to reject Red Bull's explanation of where the money was actually spent ... while at the same time believing, blindly, in the unassailable integrity of other teams' accounting.
Not that i know who or what auditing company all the f1 teams use, as an example though, deliotte had just over 50 billion in revenue year gone, i doubt they would risk losing this and its amazing reputation to cover up an f1 teams financial records, so they dont get told off by the fia, The potential for lost revenue from a drop in reputation would destroy the company. No banks, investors. Shareholder and so on and so on would be able to trust them, they can also be done for fruad and the company lose its licence for deliberately miss leading / hiding figures.
There's no way Redbull spent 2 million on catering during a freaking cost cap season. Please don't be that naïve.
I could equally say ... there's no way team xyz came-in under budget, with all of their upgrades (as already pointed out by other posters in this thread, besides me). Why believe one team, and not another? Were other teams audited by a 3rd party, paid by the FIA and not paid by the teams themselves? Nope. The point is: without an independent, 3rd party audit ... paid by the FIA, and not the teams themselves ... we take all of the submissions at face-value, just as the FIA has said. But no matter. If Red Bull chooses not to appeal, they will pay the fine. A minor over-spend will be penalized accordingly, and everyone walks away happy.
It is obvious that Mercedes is doing everything they can to gift Hamilton an 8th title for the 2021 season. And it is obvious he no longer has the chops to win one on his own merits, or that of the current generation of MB cars.
Really?? U have proof lol?? It’s actually Ferrari who are the most vocal and possibly have the most intent on this issue!! They are also rather silent since the FIA announcement. Ferrari are a powerful force in F1 and what it says is noticed!! —Ferrari in particular has called several times for maximum sanctions given out. The team believes it is the only way to ensure that squads robustly follow the cost cap in the future and aren't encouraged to game the system by trading off an overspend to secure richer rewards than any punishment dished out will cost them. Ferrari has said nothing publicly since the FIA's statement on Red Bull's breach, but it is understood the team's stance remains unchanged, and that it wants financial breaches to be treated as strictly as technical infringements where cars are disqualified if parts a few millimetres out.— https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-red-bulls-f1-rivals-see-its-minor-breach-as-anything-but/10383102/
Exactly, Ferrari have invested 2 seasons into this one season and to get a head start for the new changes, Who can honestly say Redbull would not be at the same level as Merc had they complied to the regs? its completely distored the entire season and championship and next seasons championships as this advantage it currently has will be carried over into next season.
I'd like an investigation to clear up how Toto got all this information about RB. There's clearly some sort of breach of confidential information... perhaps that gal who used to work for Merc is pushing info... I think that was already raised once before. I also find it somewhat amusing that Toto and Merc have the balls to even talk about fairness and rule breaking and favoritism.
I think resources should be spent on investigating the actual breach from RB first. Ferrari accuse them too, should Bonitto be investigated?
All the defenders of Hamilton and Mercedes are wrong. Max and RB are the good guys, being victimized by the evil doers who support Hami/Benz.
Sure, you can start a competing series, and both will suffer, but the problem is where you race. 'F1' has a lock on most venues - that was the problem many years ago when there were rumblings of teams wanting to start their own series. And look at LIV Golf - they have to PAY a network to cover their events... And just like the PGA, if you quit F1 to go race in a fledgling series, you probably give up your FIA license - and you can't race anywhere? So, if you have a couple billion dollars, you can probably go start yor own series, but you cannot call it 'F1', but you can probably call it 'Grand Prix' because we have seen that name tacked on to other non-F1 series such as ALMS and CART racing years' ago. No, the best thing to do if you don't like the rules is to simply quit and go run in another type of series altogether, except we are beginning a worldwide recession, all series are going to feel that in the coming months.
