As the Formula 1 world eagerly awaits to see how the FIA will handle Red Bull for breaching the $145 million cost cap, Fernando Alonso expects no punishment for the team. Red Bull has committed a 'minor' overspend of the $145 million cost cap for the 2021 season, with sources telling RacingNews365.com that the total has been exceeded by around $1.8 million . Even though the team are refuting the claims and believing that the 'relevant costs' are covered, they have been offered an Accepted Breach Agreement (ABA) proposal by the governing body. The question now hangs on whether they will go down the ABA route, or go to the Cost Cap Adjudication Panel where a panel of judges will decide if any penalty should be applied.
Alonso points to recent Ferrari history as example
Alonso cites the controversy involving Ferrari in 2019, when the FIA issued a series of technical directives on the suspicion that the team was using an illegal fuel flow meter that circumvented the 100kg per-hour limit. "Ferrari won two races in 2019. I think with something that we all knew that it was not legal, and nothing happened. So, they kept those wins," Alonso told media, including RacingNews356.com . "Imagine if they won the championship in 2019, with that engine. I think we need to rely on the people that have the power and trust them." Alonso believes that the different interpretations of what is covered in the cost cap is an example of the grey areas which F1 teams frequently exploit. He added: "I think this has been always part of Formula 1. This is a new thing that we implemented recently, the Cost Cap, but it was always things aerodynamically that you could explore [in] some grey areas." "The people that won the championships, they won because they exploited that grey area and then the other teams, they copy. "Eventually they [other teams] get to that level, or they [FIA] ban the thing that was allowed for one or two races. So, this is the nature of Formula 1."
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