18 April 2023 , 07:51
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Christian Horner snapped back at Frederic Vasseur after the Ferrari chief doubled down on his belief that Red Bull had got away with their budget cap breach with a "very light" punishment.
Their overspend in the 2021 season resulted in a £6m fine and a 10 percent reduction in their wind tunnel time over a 12-month period. The financial penalty is a drop in the ocean considering the financial power at Red Bull's disposal, but the sporting sanction promised to be more significant.
After all, because they won the constructors' championship last year, they were already going to have less time in the wind tunnel than everyone else. So a further reduction gives the other teams a significant advantage when it comes to car development.
Not that the effects have begun to show just yet. Red Bull have by far the most powerful cars on track at the moment and have won all three races so far in 2023. To Ferrari team principal Vasseur, it is evidence that the defending champions were not punished harshly enough.
"It means that for me the penalty is marginal," said the Frenchman earlier this month. "They did a good job but I'm still convinced that the penalty was very light."
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He did, however, concede that it is likely that any detrimental effect the penalty has on Red Bull is likely to become more noticeable as the season progresses. Vasseur added: "You should consider the rate of development that we are doing this season – if you consider the fact that if you have a 10 percent ban it's at the end, it's not something linear."
Christian Horner feels it is 'premature' to suggest Red Bull will not be too badly affected by the penalty (AP)And that is the point Horner made when he responded to those suggestions that his Red Bull team have got off lightly with their budget cap breach. Speaking to Sky Sports, he warned that there is still plenty of time for other teams to catch the runaway leaders.
"Everybody's got an opinion and I think everybody's free to have an opinion," said Horner. "The team have done a great job over the winter on limited wind-tunnel time that we've had to develop this car
"Of course, that will have an impact later into the year and on next year. So on a snapshot of three races, I think it's still hugely premature in [terms of] this season – there's an awful lot of racing still to go."