“There will be no secret deal” - Horner fires dig at Ferrari over 2019 engine
Horner went on the defensive in the FIA press conference on Saturday in Austin, finally addressing the allegations that Red Bull have broken the cost cap for 2021.
The Red Bull boss claimed the team's employees’ kids were being bullied over the allegations, and reiterated his disgust of rival teams’ comments about the situation.
Horner revealed that once a settlement has been reached with the FIA, there will be “complete transparency”.
The 48-year-old made it clear there will be no private deal with the FIA, having a dig at Ferrari over their settlement with the governing body in 2020.
In February 2020, the FIA announced that it had reached a “settlement” with Ferrari over their 2019 power unit amid suspicions it was breaking the technical regulations.
“I can’t tell you that, obviously it’s a confidential discussion between ourselves and the FIA,” Horner said.
“What I will say once hopefully this situation is concluded there will be complete transparency and I will talk you through the reasoning behind our submission and the position that we had as to why we’ve felt that each of the line items that have been challenged we believe there’s a contrary position.
“It should be transparent. The whole thing should be transparent. There will be no private, secret deal, it will all be absolutely above board. This is very different to a previous situation.”
McLaren CEO Zak Brown was also in the press conference with Horner.
Despite writing a letter to the FIA pushing for adequate punishment to teams that breach the cost cap, Brown says he still has full trust in the organisation.
“I think we have a lot of trust in the FIA. All we were doing was volunteering our opinion for them to take into consideration. I think it has been a transparent process so far in that certificates were going to be issued, then it was delayed but they communicated. It was going to be delayed, they’ve communicated who has received, who hasn’t, who has procedural.
“I don’t think it’s right that it shouldn’t be a public hearing and I have a lot of confidence it will be transparent at the end. I think we need to let the process play out and only then you can really take a view on what you think of the process, but I think so far, it’s going according to how they laid out what the process would be.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
