Brundle calls for ‘critical’ Horner contract to prevent further uproar

Sergio Perez extends contract with Red Bull Racing until 2024

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

F1 expert Martin Brundle has called on Red Bull to make Christian Horner and their financial personnel ‘responsible and accountable’ for future cost cap breaches by introducing signed documents. The Sky Sports pundit ‘understands’ that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has to do something similar, claiming that the nature of the Silver Arrows’ business means they could never be seen to overshoot the limit.

Red Bull, Horner and last year’s world champion, Max Verstappen, are still waiting to receive their punishment from the FIA after being found to have breached 2021’s £114million cost cap by a ‘minor’ amount, which could mean anything up to £5.7m. 

Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship after a tense battle with Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton that saw them separated by the finest of margins. As such, the Silver Arrows have called for action to be taken against their rivals, although a points deduction is considered unlikely. 

Brundle is of the opinion that the FIA’s action should ‘hurt’ those that have broken the rules before going on to suggest that contracts could be introduced to ensure that Horner and other key personnel are ‘locked into’ the regulations in future. 

DON’T MISS: Lewis Hamilton now ‘blanks’ Martin Brundle during his famous grid walks at F1 races

“[The touted amount Red Bull have overspent by] could be a new front wing or a floor or something like that,” Brundle told Any Driven Monday. “All of the teams, somehow or other, will be making the absolute most of their interpretation of these regulations.

“Also, the corporate governance of Mercedes-Benz, for example, means that they can’t be seen to breach something like this. That needs to be the same for all teams. I’d like to think, and I understand it to be the case, that someone like Toto has to sign a document to comply with these.

“Christian Horner at Red Bull, all the key personnel and financial personnel should be personally locked into this. That’s a critical area, so that they’re responsible and accountable, as well as their company, in being transparent and honest with these numbers.”

The FIA have conducted a long, drawn-out investigation with their initial conclusion poised to be released last week. Instead, it was pushed back to this Monday but the actual consequences of Red Bull’s supposed breach are yet to be dished out. On track, the team are fresh from a triumphant weekend in Japan where Verstappen sealed his second world title. 

A rain-soaked track saw just over half of the scheduled race distance completed and Verstappen was forced into an awkward wait to find out whether he would be awarded full points for his P1 finish. 

Eventually, word filtered through that the 25 points were his, putting him mathematically beyond Charles Leclerc after the Monegasque was handed a late five-second penalty which dropped him down to third place. 

Source: Read Full Article