“Nobody doubts that Max Verstappen was a champion of 2021” – Sebastian Vettel is against points penalty for Red Bull breaching budget cap by $1.8 Million

Sebastian Vettel calls the idea of FIA handing out a points penalty to Red Bull for breaching the budget cap ‘stupid’.

4-time world champion and former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel thinks that FIA punishing the Red Bull team with a points penalty would be a stupid idea.

The Milton-Keynes-based team was found guilty of exceeding the 2021 budget cap of $145 Million by $1.8 Million and has since been fired with criticisms.

In the latest update, the FIA has proposed an Accepted Breach Agreement to the team. Accepting the terms of the ABA would mean accepting to have committed the breach in cost cap and accepting whatever punishment FIA imposes.

There is a highly unlikely scenario in which the FIA can also reduce the points from the last year’s championship as a punishment. Speaking about the matter, Vettel said that the FIA should make things much clearer and called the idea of points deduction stupid.

The German driver said that nobody doubts that Max Verstappen was a champion of the 2021 season.

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FIA are the police, but they should be transparent – Vettel

There has been very little information from the FIA about the exact areas in which Red Bull overspent and this has made matters even worse.

The lack of transparency has triggered debate among the F1 fans, experts and rivals about the punishment that the team should face.

The Aston Martin driver called on the FIA to take this situation seriously and be as honest and transparent on the matter.

Vettel explained that FIA can do whatever they want, they are the police but in the current era where transparency is a norm and FIA should not exclude the sport from that.

In the German driver’s opinion, the best thing would be to be transparent and keep everything out in the open or else people would keep talking and speculating.

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What are the penalties that Red Bull faces?

The FIA has deemed the violation by Red Bull as a minor overspent breach and has extended the Accepted Breach Agreement(ABA) to the team,

If the violation had been more than 5% or more of the cost cap and fell under the category of material overspending breach, the ABA would not have been applicable. Following this, the penalties could have been much harsher.

But because the Red Bull team has been presented with an ABA, the potential penalties are also limited. the team only has to accept the terms and admit to having breached the contract in order to escape the trial by the Cost Cap Adjudication Panel.

The potential penalties under the ABA are a public reprimand, suspension from one or more stages of the competition excluding the main race, and limitations on aerodynamic development and other forms of testing.

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