Max Verstappen told he can ‘fund the team’ after Red Bull penalty

Christian Horner on Red Bull's success and hints at next step

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Max Verstappen has been told he could “fund the team” after Red Bull were hit with a major fine for breaking cost cap rules. Ex-F1 driver David Coulthard admitted Verstappen was “earning significant money” which he could put back into the constructor during their current crisis.

However, he revealed Verstappen would not be getting affected by the off-track issues despite the public humiliation for the team. He told Channel 4: “I think Max is just so focused on what he has to do. He’s just numb to the political side.

“Of course, he feels for his team, they’re taking a financial hit. He’s earning significant money, if he feels really bad he can help fund the team for that. But I think there’s always a background noise in Formula One. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Schumacher era or Hamilton’s and some of his amazing victories, there’s always going to be a little bit of controversy.”

Red Bull were found guilty of breaking F1’s budget cap a day after Verstappen secured his second title at the Japanese Grand Prix. After investigations from the FIA, it emerged the team had overspent by £1.8million ($2.2m) last season.

But, the FIA have admitted this would have been just £432,000 ($500k) if Red Bull submitted tax receipts correctly. It led the FIA to issue the team both a sporting penalty and a fine in a measure Red Bull boss Christian Horner described as “draconian”.

After negotiations between both sides, the team were eventually hit with a financial penalty of £6.4m ($7m).

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But, they have also been hit with a 10 per cent reduction in wind tunnel and CFD testing next season which could have a huge impact on development. In what could be a blow to Verstappen’s title defence in 2023, Horner has suggested the loss of testing time would impact the overall car performance.

He has even claimed Verstappen and team-mate Sergio pere could lose up to half a second per lap. He explained: “And that, I’ve heard people reporting today [that it] is an insignificant amount – let me tell you now, that is an enormous amount.

“That represents anywhere between a quarter and half a second worth of lap time.” Despite the off-track issues, Verstappen has continued his dominant run with two victories in the United States and Mexico.

The Dutchman secured the vital wins to surpass Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s previous record for most wins in a single season.

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