Ferrari are not happy with the penalty the FIA imposed on Red Bull for breaching the 2021 Formula 1 budget cap; according to their Racing Director Laurent Mekies.
Red Bull will have have to dish out $7-Million to the FIA as per the Accepted Breach Agreement (ABA) they signed with the governing body. They will also have to relinquish 10% of their wind tunnel as part of their penalty.
Laurent Mekies spoke to Sky Italia about the subject, and while he respects the process applied to conclude the matter, he doesn’t believe penalty is suits the breach.
“We have talked a lot in recent weeks about what one can do with half a million more, or a million or two or three,” Mekies began. “Two million [euros] is a significant amount and we have given our opinion several times on this topic.
“We at Ferrari think that this amount is worth around a couple of tenths [per lap] and so it’s easy to understand that these figures can have a real impact on the outcome of the races, and maybe even a championship,” he added.
“As for the penalty, we are not happy with it, for two important reasons,” the Frenchman declared. “The first is that we at Ferrari do not understand how the 10% reduction of the ATR can correspond to the same amount of lap time that we mentioned earlier.
“Furthermore, there is another problem in that. Since there is no cost cap reduction in the penalty, the basic effect is to push the competitor to spend the money elsewhere,” he pointed out.
“They have total freedom to use the money they can no longer spend on use of the wind tunnel and CFD due to the 10% reduction, on reducing the weight of the car, or who knows what else.
“Our concern is that the combination of these two factors means the real effect of the penalty is very limited,” he summed up.
However, Mekies concedes that what’s done is done and cannot be changed; he said: “We have no choice but to move on and I believe it is very important for us and also for the whole of F1 and the fans, that for 2022, we do not have to wait until next October to see the outcome of the accounts.
“We will support the FIA to do what is needed to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible,” the Ferrari Racing Director concluded.