In a recent development, Mercedes has been accused of breaching the 2022 budget cap of $140,000,000. This has come after a year of the “right to cheat” claim by the team principal Toto Wolff. But his team isn’t in danger, as Aston Martin and Red Bull complete the list.
In October last year, Wolff hit out at the FIA over the penalty they put against Red Bull for crossing the 2021 budget cap. The Austrian boss believed that the liability wasn’t strict enough and there wasn’t much harm done to the Austrian stable.
Speaking about it, the billionaire manager stated, as per Marca, “If Red Bull had overspent by two million dollars, they could close the matter by paying the FIA five times, therefore 10m dollars.”
“And, in any case, it would not be fair because it would sanction the right to cheat by paying a fine,” added the Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. But now, his team is on the verge of facing the same fate. That was right after a year of his infamous “right to cheat” claim.
Mercedes is at risk of breaching the $140 million cap
FormulaPaasion recently reported that according to French media L’Equipe, Mercedes are right in the mix to have violated the cost cap in 2022. The 2022 F1 season has been a shocker per the Silver Arrows’ standards. And spending money to get the benefits, even if they cross the budget cap, cannot be kept out of the way.
However, FIA has thoroughly rejected the reports of budget cap breaches by the teams. It released a statement that said the auditing is ongoing, and there is no concrete evidence to show if a team has breached the cost cap, reported Racingnews365.
According to https://t.co/tLtohk7GRX, there are rumours that 3 teams broke the budget cap last year.
Stefano Domenicali says that if any team is found to have breached the cap, they will face sporting penalties, not financial penalties. pic.twitter.com/2P5yTJGlhe
— Mercedes-AMG F1 News (@MercedesNewsUK) July 18, 2023
Admittedly, along with Mercedes, the names of two other teams have also come up. While Red Bull is once again on the list following their 2021 breach. But among them, Aston Martin is at a greater risk.
However, the Silverstone-based team has made quite a progress from last year, and it’ll be interesting to see if they pass the litmus test again after getting out narrowly last year.
Teams ask FIA to clarify Helmut Marko’s position at Red Bull.
While the breach of budget cap reports is in full swing, multiple news came out that says that several teams asked about Helmut Marko and his position in the Milton-Keynes-based team.
Even though Marko is an instrumental man in the defending champions’ garage, just salary isn’t listed among the top salaried managers at Red Bull. The teams have asked FIA to clarify the veteran’s position at Red Bull.
The teams have done this so that the Austrian stable does not get away from adding the Austrian’s salary to the budget addition. On this, Marko stated that he has a contract with the team until 2024. Hence, keeping this out of the budget cap radar will be hard.
