Marko agrees: 'Mathematical and tactical games with budget cap'

Red Bull Racing overspent by almost one and a half million euros in 2021, for which they were fined eight million dollars and have ten per cent less wind tunnel time last season. The Austrian racing team have made some internal adjustments to prevent themselves from making another mistake and running into heavy penalties again.

"We learned from the negative experience," Marko told news agency APA. "We have massively increased the number of staff in the finance department."

The Red Bull adviser went on to explain that the budget cap has also become a broader political issue in Formula 1. "There are mathematical and tactical games that have to be taken into account now," he said.

Tricks to get around the budget cap

Otmar Szafnauer worries, for example, that not all activities carried out by staff members of F1 teams are covered by the budget cap. As an example, the Alpine team boss points to his former Racing Point colleague Andrew Green, who was technical director at Aston Martin before former Red Bull chief Dan Fallows was appointed to that position.

Green retained his position, but would from then on carry it out at the umbrella company Aston Martin Performance Technologies. Szafnauer fears that more F1 teams will use that construction to try to keep the costs of their best-paid staff outside the budget cap. So Marko too agrees that such games are being played.