Toto Wolff weighs in on Christian Horners budget cap prediction

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

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has refuted Christian Horner’s view that as many as six F1 teams could be at risk of breaching this year’s strict budget cap after Red Bull were found to have broken the financial regulations in 2021. The Austrian outfit were hit with a multi-million pound fine and a reduction in wind tunnel hours earlier this month after reaching an ‘accepted breach agreement’ with the FIA at the end of a lengthy process.

Horner has continued to defend Red Bull’s excessive spending habits even after they were found to have breached last year’s limit by expressing his disapproval over the scale of the punishments handed down to them. He has also insisted that as many as six teams could follow Red Bull in breaking the rules when next year’s figures are released due to the spike in energy prices over the last few months.

“The danger for 2022 is that there could be six teams in breach of the cap,” said Horner. “Energy prices have been increasing exponentially, but thankfully we’ve been protected from that. There is that chance that several teams, many of which have stated it during F1 commission meetings, will break the cap this year.”

However, Wolff does not believe that any teams will be prepared to risk breaching this year’s budget limit after seeing the damage that has been done to Red Bull’s wider reputation over the last few weeks.

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“Beyond the sporting penalty and the financial penalty, which obviously resonates in the real world out there, there is a big reputational consequence,” the Mercedes boss told Motorsport.com.

“And that is why I believe no team is going to put a foot wrong over the line, because you don’t want to have your partners and your team dragged into this space. We’re living in a transparent, compliant world. Everything needs governance, and the sport needs it. As a sport overall, this is the real achievement of the whole process.”

Red Bull have found themselves on the receiving end of widespread media criticism in the weeks since their budget cap breach was confirmed by the FIA, while further questions have been raised over the legitimacy of Max Verstappen’s title win in 2021 as a result of the situation. Mercedes led calls for Red Bull to be punished harshly before their sanctions were announced, but Wolff went on to confirm that he is no longer prepared to mull over the topic now that a conclusion has been reached.

“I’m beyond the point now that I want to comment on what is being said there,” he added. “So for me, the most important outcome of this whole process is there is a penalty, whether it’s too small, right, or too big, [it’s] difficult to judge.

“It was a first, strong governance, strong policing, independent assessment, and then a fine. That wouldn’t have been the case in the past, I guess.”

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