Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes that any violation of the budget cap is a “heavyweight” offense.
Red Bull and Aston Martin have reportedly failed to comply with the cost cap in the 2021 Formula 1 season. It is believed that the Milton Keynes-based outfit exceeded the limit by more than 5%, making it a “material breach”.
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner denied that they had broken the rules.
“That’s heavyweight, that’s massively heavyweight,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1 about the matter.
“We are using used parts, we are not running what we would want to run, and we are not developing what we could be developing.
“We have made more than 40 people redundant so that are dearly missed in our organizations.
“It was a huge, mammoth project to make the cap. I don’t know how many tens of millions we had to restructure processes in order to be below the cap, and if someone has been not doing that or pushing the boundaries, every million [over the cap spent] is a massive disadvantage [for us].
“I find it funny that Christian says [Red Bull are below the cap] because it’s been weeks and months they are being investigated, so maybe he doesn’t speak to his CFO.
“As a matter of fact, all of us have been investigated diligently. As far as we understand there’s a team in minor breach, which is more procedural, and another team that is fundamentally massively over.”
