Red Bull and Aston Martin have exceeded the capped budgets of $146.2 million in 2021. Red Bull has been particularly heavily penalized with a fine of €7 million and a 10% reduction in their wind tunnel time and computer-assisted fluid analysis.
In 2022, the budget is reduced to $141.65 million with the goal of gradually decreasing costs. Due to inflation, it was ultimately increased by 3.1% to reach $145.5 million, approximately equivalent to last year.
However, costs in 2022 have greatly increased, whether it be electronic components or logistic expenses, these expenditures were not necessarily anticipated by the teams and some are therefore at risk of inadvertently exceeding the 2022 budget.
It should be noted that currently, not all teams on the grid have the budget to reach the 145 million annual expenses. For example, Haas and Alfa Romeo do not have this budget, although Haas is expected to reach it next year thanks to its new title sponsor.
Helmut Marko, however, believes that teams will be more likely to exceed the 2022 budget cap due to the circumstances.
“I think that at least 6 teams will be over [note: the budget],” explained the head of the Red Bull Young Drivers Program to Auto Motor Und Sport. “Inflation is something that you couldn’t really project, especially in energy.”
Horner is also of the same opinion, stating that energy costs are unpredictable. Even if he believes that Red Bull will stay within budget in 2022. We don’t think we will exceed the budget in 2022, but these penalties given on the 2021 budget will have to set a precedent, and what about those who exceed the budget by 5%?
Red Bull exceeded the budget by 0.3% and received a financial penalty of 10%. Therefore, the leader of Red Bull believes that if the budget is exceeded by much more, the penalty should be enormous.
One of the main variations in the budget will therefore concern costs related to energy, whether they are fixed expenses for heating the factories or powering the blowers, or they involve travel expenses such as truck fuel or intercontinental flights for the 100 employees who travel on behalf of the company around the world.
