Horner: Allegations of fraud are shocking

Saturday’s press conference in Austin, attended by Christian Horner and Zach Brown, made a very painful impression. The scandal over financial regulation violations committed by Red Bull Racing continues, there is no new official information about this and the Milton Keynes team leader commented on the situation in his own way.

Christian Horner: “The latest news is that we continue to work with the FIA, the process is ongoing and we hope to close this issue. After that, all the facts will be made public and we will be able to tell absolutely openly about everything. We hope that everything will be resolved in the near future.

Financial regulation is a very complex set of rules laid out on 52 pages, and since this is a fairly new document, different accounting specialists have obviously interpreted it differently.

These differing interpretations are related to what should be considered expenses that affect sports results, which expenses should be included in a limited budget, which should not. We believe that our costs, which affect the result, do not exceed the budget limit. We are currently in talks with the FIA ​​about what those costs are, what extenuating circumstances etc.

Our advantage is zero. This applies both in the field of equipment modernization and in the work of the team as a whole. There was and is no additional benefit, neither in 2021 nor in 2022. In the reporting we provided to the FIA, our spending was well below the allowable budget cap. We categorically state that we received absolutely no benefit. All this is complete fiction.

The 5% tolerance offered by the rules is probably worth rethinking, and the range of sanctions for budget overruns generally makes their application entirely subjective. And I think this explains the staged campaign, whose participants called for draconian measures against Red Bull.

But what frustrates us most in this whole process is that information has been leaked, leaving us the victims of actual insults for three weeks now. In his letter to the FIA, Zach Brown accuses us of cheating – it’s just shocking because there are no facts, he had no information that would allow him to make such allegations. This is not allowed, this is wrong, this must be stopped.

It hurts our brand, our partners, our riders, team members – and it comes at a time when everyone is talking so much about mental health! Due to the false, baseless accusations from other teams, our employees have already gotten into serious trouble, our employees’ children are being bullied in playgrounds – this is all very bad. The behavior of some of our rivals puts us off.”

At the same press conference, McLaren Racing CEO Zack Brown was asked to answer the question of what purpose he sent his letter to FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem.

“My letter was about how if a team spends more money than a limited budget allows, they get an advantage,” he said. – Financial Regulations – Same rules as technical or sports regulations. We are not saying whether Red Bull has broken these rules or not. I wrote that if someone has committed an offence, it should not be ignored.

This is no different than when someone has committed a number of violations of the technical regulations. I didn’t mention the names of the teams, it was a general reaction to a possible violation of the financial rules. I have no idea about the numbers, I don’t know the details, but if we had the chance to spend more money, we would be in a better position, we could increase the workforce, we could prepare more technical innovations . But it is up to the FIA ​​to find out whether or not there are violations of the financial regulations.”