Nothing works up Formula 1 teams like money, and the idea that one team has spent more than the others has proved particularly enraging.
It’s enraging not just for those who felt they’ve lost a competitive advantage but also for the team accused, that being Red Bull Racing, as it continues to maintain it’s done nothing wrong.
“We’ve been on trial because of public accusations since Singapore,” Horner said defiantly at the weekend.
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That’s notwithstanding that the FIA has in fact found that Horner’s team has breached the rules, and there are rumblings that he may be preparing to accept a settlement to avoid taking the matter through a lengthy trial process.
But that won’t prevent him from going down swinging, with McLaren’s Zak Brown his current focus.
His negotiations over possible punishments with the FIA were put on hold over the weekend and into this week after Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz died. It’s generated further questions for Horner to answer, these ones on the viability of the team without its talismanic founder, though on this count the answers are substantially more straightforward.
And though the driver market is nominally down to just one seat remaining, Williams has admitted its deal with Logan Sargeant is provisional, and we may not have a clear picture of the 2023 grid for several weeks yet.
STEINER BACKS BROWN’S COST CAP ‘CHEATING’ CLAIMS
Guenther Steiner has backed in Zak Brown’s description of cost cap breaches as “cheating” as Christian Horner dials up the outrage.
Brown sent a letter to the FIA last week in which he said overspends and procedural breaches of the financial regulations “constitute cheating” and recommended harsh penalties.
Horner railed against Brown’s comments at the weekend’s United States Grand Prix, describing it as “tremendously disappointing for a fellow competitor to be accusing you of cheating”.
“It’s absolutely shocking that another competitor, without the facts, without any knowledge of the details, can be making those kinds of accusations,” he said.
“You cannot go around just making that kind of allegation without any fact or substance.”
Brown attempted to defend himself by pointing out he didn’t name any team in his letter, though he wrote the missive just one week after the FIA confirmed Red Bull Racing had overspent its budget and he circulated it to all other teams that hadn’t been found to have breach the rules, making the inference clear.
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Joe Saward has reported that Red Bull Racing has even sent Brown a legal letter for his comments, though it’s unclear whether it’s threatening any kind of action.
But Red Bull Racing’s overspend has been a hot topic among rival teams, who are eager to ensure the constructors champion doesn’t gain an unfair advantage from splashing more cash around.
Haas boss Guenther Steiner has fallen in behind Brown’s characterisation, saying that any overspend would logically mean a team has cheated regardless of intention.
“It is like going under weight or using too much fuel,” he said. “We got excluded from a race because a technical infringement of three millimetres, which didn’t make a difference [to] going fast or not.
“So it is cheating.”
Steiner said he hoped the FIA would hand down significant penalties if Red Bull Racing can’t disprove the governing body’s allegation.
“It needs to come out somewhere because they obviously gained an advantage by spending more money,” he said. “So you need to take that advantage away.
“Taking budget cap money away or wind tunnel runs away or something like this should happen if they cheated.”
RED BULL RACING’S FUTURE IS SECURE WITHOUT MATESCHITZ
Red Bull Racing says its future in Formula 1 is secure despite the passing of owner Dietrich Mateschitz at the weekend.
Mateschitz was one of F1’s most influential figures despite his reclusive nature. He owned both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri — 20 per cent of the grid — and revived the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, which he owned.
F1 and other extreme sports were a key pillar in Mateschitz’s Red Bull vision, and it’s not clear who will replace the Austrian at the helm after his passing.
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But Horner said the team wouldn’t be reliant on currying favour with a new management structure because Mateschitz had ensured the foundations of the F1 program were rock solid.
“The future is set,” Horner said, per Autosport. “He’s put in place a very strong foundation for the future.
“And with in 2026 Red Bull becoming a power unit manufacturer — that was the missing piece of our jigsaw, and he had the vision to enable that to happen.
“Just as we’ve done with the chassis, we will take that same spirit, his spirit, into the future engine company.”
Horner said Mateschitz had been involved in the running of the team “right up until last week” before he died.
“He had the vision for and endorsed the plan for Red Bull Powertrains, to set the team up for the future, for the long term.
“And the commitment that he’s shown to that and what he’s enabled us to create in Milton Keynes puts Red Bull Racing in a very strong position for many, many years to come.”
AlphaTauri’s future is also thought to be safe, though the team has formally and informally been on the market from time to time. It’s unclear whether Red Bull under fresh management would maintain Mateschitz’s policy of requiring any buyer to keep the team in Faenza, however.
WILLIAMS SAYS IT HAS NO BACK-UP TO ROOKIE SARGEANT
Williams confirmed the penultimate piece of the driver market puzzle when it announced at the United States Grand Prix that it had signed up American race Logan Sargeant for 2023 — at least provisionally.
Sargeant, a Williams junior driver, is currently third in championship standings of his maiden full-time Formula 2 season. He became the first American driver to partake in an official F1 session in seven years when he completed FP1 for Williams in Austin.
The only possible roadblock to his promotion is that he’s yet to acquire a superlicence, and there’s no way to know if he will until the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which will also conclude the F2 campaign.
Sargeant is able to pick up bonus points for each FP1 session completed, which combined with his junior racing CV means he must finish no lower than sixth in the standings to be eligible for the licence.
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The 21-year-old is just nine points ahead of the tied drivers in fourth, fifth and sixth in the standings and only 12 points ahead of the driver in seventh.
Failing to acquire points would leave the team needing to ask the FIA for dispensation, which it was unwilling to give Colton Herta, albeit in different circumstances.
Asked whether Williams had a backup plan in place, team principal Jost Capito said it did — except it’s no particular driver and in fact nothing solid.
“Yeah, but not concrete, not a name,” he said, per Autosport. “There will be drivers who do not get a contract. There are still very good drivers, and [they] have the superlicence points on that, so that’s fine.”
Capito was instead preparing for 2023 under the assumption Sargeant would make the cut, including by running him in extra practice sessions and the end-of-season driver test.
“We want to prepare Logan as good as possible for next season,” he said. “That means he has to maximise the time in the car this year, so that’s why we gave give him three FP1s.
“It’s part of the preparation now to get Logan in the best possible position for the beginning of next season.”
