The dispute over possible violations of the Formula 1 budget cap in 2021 escalated in Singapore on Saturday when Red Bull team boss Christian Horner threatened legal action against Mercedes and accused his counterpart Toto Wolff of “massively defamatory, fictitious allegations”.
It was previously revealed that the FIA was investigating two teams believed to be Red Bull and Aston Martin, with Wolff describing it as an “open secret” in the paddock. He said there’s “one team in a minor breach that’s more procedural and another team that’s fundamentally and massively over.”
In a tense press conference at the Marina Bay circuit, Horner optimistically defended his team and accused his rivals of trying to stop his driver Max Verstappen from possibly clinching his second title on Sunday.
“The submissions between the team and the FIA are confidential,” he said. “I have no idea what the outcome of our competitors’ filing is, so I would be curious as to where their source of information for these fictional claims came from. They are hugely defamatory and one can only assume that it is no coincidence that this is happening at a point where Max has scored his first goal at a World Cup.”
Horner had insisted he believes his team met the budget limit set at $145 million last year, after Wolff stressed how serious he thought a breach could be. “It’s heavyweight, it’s massively heavyweight,” Wolff said. “We use used parts. We don’t perform what we would like to perform; we do not develop what we could develop.”
The FIA will remain silent while it carries out its assessment, with conclusions on teams’ cost claims expected on Wednesday. Horner insisted he was ready to take action against opposing teams’ comments. “The FIA has stated that they have not yet completed their process. So until there is a clear retraction of these statements, we will take this extremely seriously,” he said. “We will examine all the options available to us because it is absolutely unacceptable to make the comments that were made yesterday that totally defame the team, the brands and Formula 1.
“[Mercedes] were very clear in naming Red Bull, so if you’re referring to allegations I’m making, the allegations were actually the other way around. We don’t know if we’re breaking the rules and we won’t know until next week when the process is complete.”
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Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies had also questioned whether other teams had hit the budget cap and urged the FIA to act decisively. “We expect that on such a serious matter there will be full transparency and maximum penalties to ensure we all drive by the same rules as their impact on vehicle performance is huge,” he said.
The FIA has a range of sanctions to impose, ranging from fines and race bans, to point deductions and the potential ban of a team from a championship, both of which could alter the outcome of last season’s title race, which ended in a controversial final by Verstappen was won ahead of Lewis Hamilton by Mercedes. The FIA defines two types of infractions, “minor” infractions below 5% of the cost cap and “substantial” infractions above 5%, for which serious penalties can be imposed.
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