Vettel dismisses 'stupid' idea to hand Verstappen 2021 points penalty

Sebastian Vettel believes that it would be 'stupid' to punish Max Verstappen with a points deduction to his 2021 championship-winning season. Red Bull have been found guilty by the FIA of exceeding the $145m cost cap limit for the 2021 season, with sources telling RacingNews365.com that they exceeded the limit by around $1.8m. The FIA have presented Red Bull with an Accepted Breach Agreement proposal - something laid out for this scenario in the financial regulations - which they can accept or reject. Accepting the proposal means they will accept whatever punishment the FIA deems fit. There's a remote possibility that Red Bull could be handed points penalties to their 2021 championship totals, although this is considered unlikely. When asked about the possibility of a points deduction for Verstappen's 2021 championship-winning total, Vettel believed that the FIA needed to be clearer on whether or not it was a viable penalty. "Yeah, I think on that stuff, the FIA should come out and make it, very clear, very quick or very soon, because obviously, that's a bit stupid," Vettel told media, including RacingNews365.com . "Maybe you have a point or not, but I think nobody doubts that he was a champion of '21."

Vettel: FIA need to be transparent

Information on the exact areas of Red Bull's alleged overspend have been minimal from the FIA, which has triggered debate on the penalties that need to be handed out to the team. The Aston Martin driver continued to call on the FIA to be as open and as honest as they can on the matter, in order to answer everybody's questions on the subject. "They can do what they want, they are the police," added Vettel. "But I think we live in a time of age where transparency becomes more and more, not just a thing, but something that is becoming more normal and, I don't think sports should be excluded from that. "I think the best [thing] will be to be transparent so that everybody can see what happened. "But otherwise, you just have a lot of people talking and speculating and I think we're past that era."