Mercedes: Austin W13 upgrade about learning for 2023 (motorsport.com) Another update for Mercedes... I wonder how big their catering bill is for 2022?
Is the cost of catering for hosting FIA officials to discuss TDs included in the cost cap? They probably expected the failed TD scam to save them from the expense of another upgrade, but unfortunately for them that’s not the case.
Why ... was Wolff threatening to sue Red Bull? Did I miss that threat, among all the other noise? For clarity: Wolff was loudly, emphatically accusing Red Bull of massive over-spending on car development (with zero evidence or proof, naturally). Horner, in defense, responded with a threat of litigation. He who accuses others the loudest, is often the most guilty of the exact same offense.
Frankly their development rate since Bahreïn test one last winter is just suspect to say the least ..
Then we shall see next year then. But what punishment you expecting them to get for breaking the financial regs? should they be found guilty of breaking them next year ofc.
Let's be clear ... Mercedes has been part of this thread since the third post Mercedes kept themselves at the forefront of the issue, by shouting from the mountaintops that Red Bull overspent "massively" on car development (which is false), and that the whole paddock knew it was true. Mercedes keeps themselves in the headlines, now, by trying to convince everyone that "minor" and "massive" are synonyms Mercedes' spending in 2022 is as "suspect" as anyone else's.
So same for redbull? Redesign of the car n two years doing nothing in 3rd? Ok cool, but what about the fact redbull have won three titles 2x dc 1 x cc? Let's remeber Ferrari also never broke the rules but found a lophole ( gray area) in the regs, they didnt break the rules or cheat. Slightly different from redbull who have cheated by breaking the financial regs and developing this years car and last years over budget?
Simple effective statement from Zak!! Brown holds teams responsible for breaching cost cap: 'FIA have been clear' 14:28, TODAY LAST UPDATE: 15:17 44 COMMENTS GPblog.com Zak Brown believes the FIA has done a good job with the cost cap. According to the McLaren CEO, teams were allowed to ask the FIA as many questions as they wanted in case of ambiguity about the rules. Brown therefore thinks the teams are fully responsible for any breach of the budget cap. On Monday, the FIA announced the findings of its investigation into the 2021 Formula 1 teams' financial submissions. In this, Red Bull Racing was found guilty of slightly exceeding the budget cap. The team announced it was "surprised and disappointed" as it believed it had stayed under the limit. The FIA has not yet announced what the penalty will be for the offence. Brown supports the FIA's work. The governing body has also faced a lot of criticism. "I think it’s now all about how (the FIA) handle it moving forward. I think we can’t judge them on their transparency. It was good that they said, ‘It’s not coming on Wednesday, it’s going to come on Monday’ — they were clear", the McLaren CEO tells RACER. Brown: 'FIA has done a really good job' According to Brown, teams could go to the FIA throughout the season to seek clarification on matters relating to the budget cap. According to the American, it is therefore up to the teams to comply with the cost cap. A breach cannot be blamed on uncertainty or high spending in certain departments unrelated to car performance. "The FIA have been unbelievably collaborative, communicative and clear. And if anything was unclear then the obligation was on the teams to ask. The FIA has done a really good job on the cost cap, and you can go to them and ask them anything: ‘Hey, is this included? Is this not included?’ And when you go over budget you go over budget, so it needs to be dealt with swiftly and transparently.”
It is my opinion that this thread is full of mis-informed accusations and theories that TBH are embarrassing in their ignorance. I, for one, do not have enough knowledge about the workings of the cost cap and how the various teams approached and accounted their spending. What I do know is that in the early years of this new era, the system will evolve immensely and close up loopholes and 'misunderstandings'. Make no mistake that this is not a collaborative effort. The teams are doing everything they can to out-fox the FIA and I think that it is important for the FIA to show strength and intolerance of teams (whoever they may be) who try to pull one over on them. If a team finds a creative loophole good for them however if they try to be 'smart' with the rules when it can be proven that they did it on the hopes of leniency, those teams should be severely punished. As for Red Bull, I have no idea what actually happened but people who have a lot more information than me should really have a close look because even a minor overspend could have had big implications on the last 2 championships and the competitiveness of the Red Bull for even next season.
It really depends on what the money is spend on. According to AMUS, the dispute is about a 0.9% overspend and it's mostly related to the sick days of personel (and hiring of replacements for those sick ones in that time), how much of that was or wasn't allowed. If their source is accurate then it's an overspend of 1.3 million, which is quite a bit less than the damage caused by Hamilton crashing Max out and when Mercedes went bowling in hungary. I bring up the crashes because someone brought it up last year, no idea who, that made a pretty good point regarding crash damage caused 100% fault by other drivers, whether that should be included or excluded from the budget cap. It's a moot point for now because it doesn't apply in 2021/22. FWIW I don't think a 1.3 overspend is extreme. The teams themselves accepted that there are 2 tiers of overspend, up to 5% and over, so no matter how much jumping up and down Toto and Mattia do right now, it's definitely determined to be a minor overspend, and if AMUS is accurate, it's quite literally about sick days. I did some research on this and average British worker takes 5.8 sick days a year, so if we half that, and their work cover gets paid $350 for the day, that's the 1.3 million. Far fetched or not? And then we still have the questionable statement from the FIA themselves, they accepted all teams' financials and took them at face value. Given that they've decided Red Bull was in the wrong...they only looked at RBR then?
"The FIA has been clear..." 50+ pages on financial documents, and we completely accept that they got everything written so solid nothing can be interpreted differently? From the guys that re-wrote "what if the team reaches the 2 hour limit and 3 hour limits, what points should they get'' regulation that not a single person understood, I think is a stretch.
Thank you, for a well-reasoned post As i've written many times: IF Red Bull chooses to not appeal, OR fails in their appeal ... THEN I'll accept whatever fine/penalty the FIA imposes on Red Bull for their minor overspend (I have yet to hear the same from Mercedes, or any of their fans). I also expect, and trust, that the audits of all teams' finances will be more independent, and fair, in the future.
