Christian Horner could barely contain his anger at accusations that Red Bull breached cost cap rules during the 2021 season as he broke his public silence on the matter.
The FIA said earlier this month that their analysis of the teams' accounting for last season showed that Red Bull had overspent by a "minor" amount. But almost immediately after, the team released a statement of its own in which it defended itself.
Very little has been said publicly since, but the situation is now coming to a head in Austin. Ahead of the United States Grand Prix, a press conference was held at the circuit on Saturday in which Horner faced some difficult questions about the overspending allegations.
But he came out swinging, refusing to accept the FIA's declaration that his team broke the rules. "We are in a process with the FIA, we're hoping to get closure on that," he told reporters. "At that point in time, all the facts will be laid on the table and we will be able to talk very openly about the cap and why we feel our costs are fully in line.
"We're in a process and working with the FIA – they're being diligent and trying to do their job, and hopefully in the near future we'll have a resolution. It's a new process, and what you have to remember with these regulations is they were introduced at a level, $175m, which was then reduced by $30m during the pandemic. It's a complicated set of regulations, 52 pages, and of course we've been through that process, and 2021 was the first ever year of a very complicated set of financial regulations.
"Of course, we'll have a varying interpretation to them from different accounting specialists. Obviously the findings of the FIA have been made public recently, and we're now in a voluntary process with the FIA, going through that process with them. I hope we'll be able to conclude that in the future."
Asked if Red Bull could have clarified points of contention within the rules sooner, he replied: "We made an interim submission in 2021, and there was no feedback or suggestion we were doing anything that was contrary to any regulations. And then of course the submission made in March, and we didn't hear anything from that until the latter part of September so it's a significant period of time, and there's a duty within the regulations for the FIA to guide to have effective compliance."
Horner also baulked at the suggestion that any overspend in 2021 contributed to their success this season – Max Verstappen has already sewn up the drivers' title and the constructors' crown will soon follow for Red Bull. But asked if the spending last year played a part, the team boss replied: "Absolutely not. What you've got to look at is, what are the relevant costs? And what are the relevant costs that are inside and outside the cap? That's where the interpretation comes from.
"Our view is that our relevant costs are within the cap. We are in discussions with the FIA about what those costs are and what are potentially mitigating circumstances, etc. So we had zero benefit from a development or operations perspective, either for 2021 or for 2022, from the way that we operated within the cap.
"Our submission was significantly below the cap – we expected certain things to be potentially challenged or clarified, as is the process with a brand new set of regulations, but based on external, professional accounting third parties, the interpretation of those rules, of a 52-page document to police this, were very clear from our side. So we absolutely and categorically don't feel we have had any advantage either in 2021, or 2022 or '23 or '24, some people were talking about '26. It's totally fictitious."
