Christian Horner Reveals the ‘Significant’ Impact of the $7 Million Penalty

The Red Bull F1 team was slapped with a hefty penalty after it came to the surface that the Milton-Keynes-based team had breached the 2021 cost cap.

Reports had revealed that Red Bull had been charged with a Minor Overspend Breach of 1.6% due to which they were handed a penalty of $7 Million and a reduction in their wind tunnel and CFD time in 2023.

It is obvious that this will have a massive impact on the team’s 2023 car development and will affect their ace Max Verstappen’s chances of defending his two consecutive championship titles.

With the new season nearing its beginning, Team boss Christian Horner has explained how the penalties are already having a significant impact on the team.

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Penalties have limited Red Bull’s development

Speaking to the RACER’s Chris Medland, Horner revealed that the penalties have significantly limited the team’s development process.

The Briton revealed that the team is learning to adapt to that and trying to be more focused and disciplined about what they put in the testing process in the tunnel and simulation.

Horner admits that the penalties have handicapped the team but he also concedes that there are very capable people in his team who are constantly trying to extract the most out of the things that they have.

2️⃣ more days #SeasonLaunch #RB19 pic.twitter.com/ati7o0WbF2

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) February 1, 2023

Cost cap has brought efficiency to Formula 1

Despite falling on the wrong side of the financial regulations with hefty penalties, the Red Bull boss thinks that the cost cap has brought efficiency to the sport.

Explaining his statement, the Briton said that four or five years ago, the teams used to have a huge stock of brand-new spare parts that were never used and would end up getting scrapped.

But now with the cost cap, the teams cannot afford to stock the spare parts and it has made their work more effective and efficient.

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