Ben Sulayem: Rivals wanted Red Bull 'hanged' over cost cap breach
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem believes some of Red Bull's Formula 1 rivals wanted the team " hanged " as further punishment for breach ing the cost cap.
In the auditing process for the 2021 season, it was revealed that Red Bull were the only team to exceed the $145 million limit imposed, committing a so-called 'minor' breach .
It was revealed that the team were $1.8 million over the cap, but a tax credit situation with United Kingdom authorities meant the team did not receive an expected rebate for engineering and technology research.
This accounted for about $1.4 million of the overspend, with the FIA looking favourably on this and reducing the overspend to about $400k, or 0.37% of the available spend.
As punishment, Red Bull were handed a $7 million fine and docked some of their development allowance for 2023, including wind tunnel and CFD time.
Despite the penalties handed out, Ben Sulayem feels that even more draconian penalties were bei...