New reports indicate that the status of Adrian Newey might have a lot to do with Red Bull’s 2021 budget cap breach.
Last Monday FIA confirmed the budget breach rumors. The governing body found two teams guilty of a breach. FIA further confirmed Red Bull to be the only team to have gone over the 2021 budget cap.
Red Bull is at fault for “minor” overspending.
Aston Martin was found guilty of a procedural breach.
Various reports around the probable reason for the breach followed. These ranged from sick leave to “free” catering services to employees.
However, a new report from a German Auto newspaper outfit suggests that Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey is at the center for the overspending.
Status of Newey
The issue comes down to the status of Newey in the outfit.
Reports indicate that according to FIA Newey is an employee of Red Bull. This might look simple but has big implications for the budget cap. If he is an employee, then his salary of $10 million will be counted in the 2021 budget.
However, according to Red Bull Newey is an enlisted contractor and his salary should be exempted from the budget cap altogether.
There is another catch – the top three earners of a team are excluded from the budget cap. However, there are mixed reports about Newey being one of them in Red Bull.
If FIA indeed took Newey’s hefty salary into account this might explain the reason Red Bull went over the cap. However, for now, the matter is still unclear as a full detailed report is still awaited.
Nevertheless, Helmut Marko has clarified the possibility of Verstappen losing his 2021 title as complete “nonsense”.
“I don’t want to say too much, just this much,”
he told F1-Insider.
“We still believe that we didn’t break the cost cap rule at all.
“Discussions with the FIA are ongoing. Let’s see what finally comes out of it.
“But rumours Max could lose his World title in 2021, for example, are complete nonsense.
“The past has shown that even extreme violations of the regulations were punished very mildly by the FIA.”
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