2022 F1 Discussions

If they made an affordable watch available they might make a killing and gain new TH buyers, but what do I know, I’m only one of the masses, that don’t seem to count.

Yeah with the current extreme MV hype you would think there is an opportunity to sell a shitload of watches to non watch enthusiast fans.

Is it today we will get the budget cap investigation result?

'supposedly', so probably not.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/fia-red-bull-guilty-minor-overspend/

Oh dear.

Minor breach means less than $7.25m dollars. Thing is, they would only need to take a few points off Max to make Lewis WDC.

Oh there's gonna be a lot of that in two weeks time

I doubt that they will take out Max’s 1st WDC 😗

First question is was it $1m or $7m, either way the FIA have put themselves in a whole world of hurt here. But there is some method where if Red Bull accept they overspent they can plead guilty and there is no sporting penalty... can you imagine how that will sit with Ferrari and particularly Mercedes. I wouldn't want to be Susie Wolf for the next two weeks!!!

Also, no one is talking about it, but what about this year? Is Max going to go from 2 time champ to 0 champ next October? What a ridiculous way to run a sport. This should have been settled before this season even started. Honestly, if they start going back and changing championships they make themselves look incompetent, but how can there not be a material punishment? They are calling it a 'minor' overspend, but if the punishment is very small you can bet your backside Merc and Ferrari will be overspending by $6.5m next year too. What a mess.

"We're very confident we're within the cap and within those financial regulations," Horner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"So we've been shocked at the speculation and accusations that have been made by other teams. We wait for the FIA to conclude their process and we wait to see what comes out. Anything other than compliance we'll be extremely surprised at."

In addition to the potential of an appeal, Red Bull also have the opportunity to enter into a 'settlement agreement' with the FIA.

In this scenario, a team accepts its guilt and the FIA imposes a penalty it deems appropriate.

If a settlement agreement cannot be reached, the dispute will go to an adjudication panel of independent judges, who will look at the case and come to the conclusion whether the offence should be penalised.

If the team is still not happy after that, it can take its case to the FIA's international court of appeal.

Aston Martin did not comment, but their position is understood to be that they spent less than the total amount of the budget cap in 2021 and regret their breach, which centred on administrative protocols that reflect what they consider a complex regulatory interpretation.

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said on Sunday that even a so-called 'minor' breach was a significant offence, and detailed the value of an overspend to a team's competitiveness.

Binotto said: "If there is a breach, the penalty has to be significant. Our car has been developed respecting the budget cap and we know how much even a minor breach would have implied in performance.

"$5m is about half a second, $1-2m is 0.1-0.2secs, which can be the difference between second on the grid to pole.

"It is about 2021. And also over the following seasons. I am expecting full transparency and clarity on the discussions they have had."

Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff has also called for transparency about the process that was used to arrive at the assessment of any offence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/63204082

the fact Horner seems to think they are under (even today) could suggest a similar scenario to AM and potential difference in interpretation of an accounting rule or some kind of valuation method which may be disputed - rather than a blatant overspend.

so a slap on the wrist and a tightening up of the rules could be a possible outcome. The FIA have scored a few own goals over the last year, but handing a championship to someone else nearly a year after it happening (under disputed circumstances) would make the sport a complete laughing stock.

So we all have to wait on tenterhooks to see if max (or anyone else) gets disqualified for this year in October 2023? There must be a better way of doing this. Otherwise there will be a permanent cloud over the sport.

It seems like Horner is saying there were things they understood to be not included which the FIA are now saying are included, but do you really think Toto is going to want to hear that? The Lewis/Merc fans who already feel they've been robbed once (and rightly so let's be 100% honest) are now asked to swallow that not only was the WDC handed to Max on a plate but the team also 'cheated'... I can't see how the FIA can smooth this over honestly, and yes every flipping championship is going to be 'pending financial review' going forward.

I reckon the cost cap will be gone sooner rather than later, I just don't see how it is workable. I thought they already had one 'test' year that was supposed to iron out all the blips. They are talking about a nearly $2m overspend now, Mattio already said that is worth 0.2-0.5 of a second or something... although given Ferrari's recent history I can see them being a little bit humble, but Merc will be out for blood, especially given the situation last year.

One thing though, as usual the FIA want to leave punishments 'open', but it feels like we are in a weird position where they could give a very small penalty for last year and change the outcome of the championship or a very big penalty for this year and not change the championship. I fear that what will happen is that Red Bull will get a fine, because apparently you can't lose points if you haven't gone more than 5% over... now I see Martin Brundle is calling out the FIA on that one, since you could spend $7m and still not get a points penalty but that is a HUGE overspend.

Either way I see some real dramatic meetings between the FIA and Ferrari and Mercedes in the next couple of weeks.

I suppose there needs to be some leniency with the budget cap. RB submitted their budget under the cap but it turns out FIA ruled it a couple of million over the cap. Similar to a tax audit to any business really. I do agree that this murky system has no place in modern motorsport.
If they want to avoid this sort of thing maybe they should have audits more frequently throughout the season so teams know where they stand and which budget is actually left.

Funny how only 2 teams of the 10 were over.
I bet next year 10 out of 10 will be over if it means they are only slapped with a Wet lettuce leaf.

I wonder if Horner and Red Bull are still going to take legal action for Defamatory comments.

Of course they will, I understand why the FIA didn't want to give them a chart of Overspend vs Punishment, because the teams would take the punishments if they thought it was worth it. Really wouldn't want to be in the FIAs shoes right now, people already think they are incompetent, and now whatever they decide will be seen as wrong by a lot of people. And actually if they want to avoid 10 teams overspending next year they need to hit RB hard... but the FIA has never had teeth, especially when it comes to the WDC.

Turns out I was wrong about them not being able to lose points too... must have read that wrong. But the rules seem to say the punishment has to apply to the season where the transgression was made - which is correct. Imagine you were on your last year with an engine supplier and next year you were pretty sure you weren't going to be competitive, wouldn't you overspend to try and win the championships and take a penalty the next year?

I wonder if the FIA actually thought about what punishments would be appropriate when they made this rule. They never seem to think anything through. Perhaps they should frame it in terms of positions dropped rather than points lost because in one season 50 points could be huge in another meaningless. Finally I wish they would have just kept this to themselves until they had decided what it all means, it kinda makes you wonder if it's worth watching the races since the results could be meaningless, especially now this championship is won.

Or is it?

That’s why I watch practice and quali.