Horner: Our reputation has been damaged
RED BULL HIT BACK OVER CHEAT CLAIMS
CHRISTIAN HORNER said he felt Red Bull are owed an apology from their Formula One rivals for the “reputational damage” caused by “accusations” relating to their cost-cap breach.
Red Bull were fined £6million by the FIA after being found guilty of breaching cost-cap rules during last season’s bitter F1 campaign, in which their driver Max Verstappen pipped Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton for the title.
But they will not have any points deducted from the 2021 season. The outcome, which also includes a 10 percent reduction in car development time in the wind tunnel next year, draws a line under a row that some teams believed could have affected the outcome of the world championship last year.
Speculation has been rife ever since the FIA accused the team of overspending in the 2021 season more than two weeks ago. It was only yesterday that the details of their breach and their subsequent punishment were made public.
But the FIA also made it clear that they accepted that Red Bull had not intended to overspend, and that there had been no bad faith from the team. Some of Red Bull’s rivals were happy to speak about it publicly, including Mercedes and Ferrari, who called for the FIA to give out stiff penalties.
“To be honest with you, we’re due an apology from some of our rivals for some of the claims they have made,” said Red Bull team principal Horner. “We make no apology for the way we have performed and the way we have acted.
“For our rivals it’s not enough – even if they burned our wind tunnel down it would not be enough.We do take on the chin that there are lessons to be learned, and potentially mistakes have been made in our submission – with the benefit of hindsight and 20:20 vision.
“But there was no intent, nothing dishonest and certainly no cheating involved, which has been alleged in some corners.
“So I don’t feel that we need to apologise. I feel there are lessons that have been learnt and everybody can learn from this. Hopefully, now the chapter can close.
“We’ve taken a very public pounding through the accusations made by other teams. We’ve had our drivers booed at circuits and the reputational damage from those allegations has been significant. It’s now time for that to stop, so we can move on.”