Did Red Bull break resource limits agreement?

Former FIA president Max Mosley has suggested that new F1 world champions Red Bull Racing may have contravened rules designed to limit spending in the top flight, and criticised the decision to ditch his own budget cap plan.
Did Red Bull break resource limits agreement?

Red Bull Racing's double championship success may have come at a price - literally.

Former FIA president Max Mosley has suggested that the British-based team's request for an exception to be made to the Resource Restriction Agreement rules at the most recent FOTA meeting can only mean that it exceeded the allowances in place to limit spending while pursuing its success in both the constructors' and drivers' title races.

"At the last FOTA meeting, Red Bull asked for an exception," Mosley told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, "If that's true, that can only mean they spent more than they were allowed. Now they're asking for the [other] teams' okay [to have done so]."

Having proposed alternative methods of curbing spending in F1 prior to the end of his tenure as president of the governing body, Mosley was naturally scathing of the RRA.

"The effect of the RRA agreement is minimal," he insisted, "That is the reason the teams agreed to it, [so] I am interested to know how their opponents are going to react. The only thing that will work is a budget limit.

"A bigger budget is like having a bigger engine. For example, the teams are limited to a certain number of employees - let's say 100 - but, if I walk through the paddock with a lot of money, then I get the best 100 people, so you still have no chance against the rich teams."

Mosley's alternative would see each team limited in the amount it could spend, although the allocation of the set budget would be open to interpretation according to to where the team wanted to focus its resources.

It now remains to be seen what action, if any, is taken against the world champions, especially given that they continued to develop the RB6 right through to the final, and deciding, race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

Read More

Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter

Get the latest F1 news, exclusives, interviews and promotions from the paddock direct to your inbox