Christian Horner reacts to FIA's verdict on Red Bull's F1 cost cap breach

The best of Horner's response will also appear across the site in the next few hours.

We will be back at 7pm BST for FP1 in Mexico!

Horner concludes: "We will come out fighting next year."

"The punishment the FIA have come up with is a strong deterrent." 

"The FIA are setting a predecent for us. That precedent has now been set and I think the FIA are taking a firm and aggressive stance on that. The effect it has on our drivers - it has nothing to do with our drivers. They're doing our job. Max and Checo have been unbelievable to achieve a record-breaking year for us." 

"I think we are due an apology from some of the rivals. We take it on the chin. Potentially, mistakes have been made but with 20-20 vision, anyone can be a specialist. There was nothing dishonest and certainly no cheating. I don't feel we need to apologise. There are lessons to be learned. We've taken a very public pounding. We've had our drivers booed at circuits."

"It sets a precedent. The danger for 2022 there could be six teams in breach of the cap. There is a chance that several teams, many of which have stated in F1 Commission meetings will break it this year. These penalties set a precedent for the future. If you get 10% for a 0.37% breach, what is a 5% breach going to look like?"

"I think the problem is it's a new set of regulations. Whilst we feel hard done by, that there were mitigating circumstances, to drag the process out, wasn't in anyone's interest."

"If you burnt our wind tunnel down it wouldn't be enough [for other teams]."

"No I don't. Max Verstappen won last year's championship fair and square. He did the job. We did the job. This had no impact on his performance last year."

Horner confirms he was informed "30 minutes after the race" - persumably in Austin.

"It's a handicap. We are going to have work incredibly hard. It gives an advantage to our competitors. I have full belief in our team. They have demonstrated that time and time again. There were other sporting penalties that were available to the FIA but this was pushed for by our competitors." 

"It will have an affect on both [years]. It will have a material effect on our performance. It's difficult to put a lap time figure. It could be anywhere between 0.25s and 0.5s in lap time. What we have lost in ATR, we've gained in motivation."

"Had we been able to do a resubmission, we'd have been under the cap. If I look at the 2022 rate of development, I think other teams have put more components on the car than us next year. If you look at crash damage alone, some of which, are not the fault of your driver or your team. Max Verstappen has incurred the least amount of damage this year. We are at the lower end. No one can say with 100% confidence we are below the cap but we feel there are a lot of one-off costs included in this. It will become less of an accounting world championship in the future."

"There was zero benefit, because the amount we went over, there were mitigating factors. Not one penny was spent on the performance of the car. I am astounded there were no other teams that found themselves in this position. Good for them that eight of them are fully compliant. There are lessons to learn. Did we see any on-track performance? No, we didn't."

"We expect any form of leakage to be followed up."

"We accept that this set of regulations is immature, we accept this FIA administration has inherited these regulations, and there's an awful lot of work for the future. Had we dragged it out through the process, to an appeal, it had taken months, and beyond that. The amount of speculation, commenting and sniping that has been going on in the paddock, we thought it was in everyone's interest that we close the book here and today.

"We accept the penalties. Collectively we have a duty of care, together with the other entrants, there are lessons for everyone to learn. The cost cap is an important part of F1. With such a new concept of incredibly complex regulations, it's all different between all of those entities so that's why we've chosen to accept it but as I say, it's time to put it to bed and move on."

A long monologue from Horner so far.

He will then be asked questions by the media shortly after.

"Catering costs we believed where excluded. When we submitted the submission, we were £3.7million below the cap. Free food and beverage has always been provided. The FIA took a different viewpoint - food is not excludable."

"We took them up on their offer and felt it could be dealt quickly. Through that period we interacted with the panel and shared opinions on the topics. The FIA accepted there were mitigating factors in particular one specific item where essentially we overpaid in tax. When you take that into account, a 1.8% breach comes down to a little over $400,000. So a 0.7% breach is essentially what we are talking about. There was debate about the sanction and the size of the sanction. 

"It was concluded earlier this week where he have been given a significant penalty - financially and sporting. The more dreconian part is the sporting penalty. That it is an enormous amount. That represents between a quarter and half a second worth of lap time. That has a direct effect on next year's car and will be in place for 12 months."

"April 2021 - the first submission of these regulations was made. That was shared with the FIA and their team. There was no feedback from that so based on that, those policies, we felt were adopted as nothing was spoken about and we adopted the same methodology into the 2021 submission in 2022. In June, the FIA come and look at our accounts, books. In this submission, there's in excess of 75,000 line items that have to be entered into.

"So basically, April and June, we didn't hear anything. The first we actually heard was in September with some preliminary findings where some clarifications were requested, which we officially responded to the 13 points that were raised. We felt that we had answered all the questions that were raised. We turned up in Singapore and were surprised, and shocked by all the big claims by our rivals. We were concerned about the potential leakage and at that point in time we had not breached the cap.
 
"On October 3, the day after Singapore, there was a meeting to discuss future power unit regulations but it was used to explain elements of these new regulations. This is the first year of the process, it's new for them and it's new for us."

Red Bull are late! Christian Horner should be talking to the media very shortly.

Red Bull are due to speak to the media at 5:30pm UK time. We will be bringing you the best bits from that press conference. 

Read more here...