After rumours started to circulate that Red Bull had broken the cost cap earlier in October, several teams came out to say punishments for anyone found guilty should be severe – otherwise the system is essentially pointless.
Horner and Red Bull saw this as a targeted attack that was designed to make Max Verstappen’s 2021 Driver’s Championship win even more debatable given what happened in Abu Dhabi.
And, despite for weeks insisting they were innocent, Red Bull accepted the penalty imposed by the FIA of $7m and a 10% reduction in wind tunnel testing time after it became clear the Milton Keynes-based team were £2m over the allowance.
In a press conference before the weekend’s Mexican GP, Horner then went a step further and bizarrely asked for an apology. I think we are due an apology from some of the rivals. We take it on the chin.
"Potentially, mistakes have been made but with 20-20 vision, anyone can be a specialist. There was nothing dishonest and certainly no cheating. I don't feel we need to apologise. There are lessons to be learned. We've taken a very public pounding. We've had our drivers booed at circuits.
“Why have we accepted it? Had we dragged it out through the administration process, that could have taken months and beyond that the ICA could have taken further months. We could have been looking at a 12-month period to have this closed.
"And the amount of speculation and sniping that has been going on, we felt it was in everyone’s interests to close the book. We accept the penalties - begrudgingly, but we accept them.
"$7m is an enormous amount of money and the more draconian part is the sporting penalty which is a 10 per-cent reduction in our ability to use our wind tunnel and aerodynamic tools. That represents between 0.25secs and 0.5secs of lap time.
“By winning the constructors' championship, we become victims of our own success by having a 5 per-cent incremental handicap compared to second and third places, so we will have 15 per-cent less than second, and 20 per-cent less than third.”
Do you think the penalty fits the crime and was Horner right to demand an apology? Let us know in the comments below.
