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Alpine on deal Red Bull and FIA: "Will have impact, but not a huge one"
- GPblog.com
Christian Horner thinks the FIA's punishment for the offence Red Bull Racing was found guilty of is particularly harsh, but Otmar Szafnauer takes a slightly different view. The Alpine team boss thinks it is not going to have a very big impact on Red Bull's performance and argues that handing out the punishment is simply justified because the Austrian formation did not work according to the regulations.
"They are marginally over from what I can tell by reading the releases and listening to Christian. Over is over. If we are 1g overweight, we are excluded from the race. The process was followed, I am happy they've come to their conclusion. They are happy to move forward and so are," Szafnauer told to Sky Sports. When asked if the penalty fits the crime? "Yes, I think so."
He continued, "For me, it's not about an apology. It's about understanding. Making the punishment fit the crime and then moving on. It'll have an impact, but not a huge impact. It's not to the point where it punishes you too much," the top executive suspects.
What is the right punishment?
Zak Brown spoke similar words earlier on Friday. The McLaren CEO said you can never agree with everyone (read: all the teams) on what would be an appropriate punishment. He is happy that the FIA has acted but would like to see even harsher penalties in the future.
Horner, for his part, is precisely curious about what the FIA's penalties will be the moment a racing stable overspends five per cent. Red Bull actually only went 0.37 per cent over budget and already gets a 10-second 'discount' on its wind tunnel time and a seven-million-dollar fine.