The 2021 F1 season was the perfect foreshadowing for the 2022 season. While Red Bull, in partnership with Max Verstappen, broke Mercedes’ undisputed run last year, Verstappen broke Lewis Hamilton‘s a year before that. However, what caught everyone by surprise was the sudden and steep rise of the Milton-Keynes-based outfit. As the FIA released its report on the 2021 season’s budget cap and found them guilty of breaching it, many thought they had found the answer. However, Christian Horner feels that whatever the overspending was, it had nothing to do with their car’s performance.

The ruling body found Red Bull guilty of breaching the budget cap for the 2021 season last year. The actual breach was for around $400,000. However, the failure to report tax filing correctly inflated that amount to $1.4 million. Resultantly, they punished them with a fine of $7 million. They also sanctioned them with a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time. While Horner accepted FIA’s sanctions then, the newly released season of Drive to Survive reveals he was far from happy.

In the 9th episode of the 5th season, Horner said, “So, it looks like we actually breached the budget cap for 2021. It was a mistake. It was a miscalculation. We filled in a box, effectively, wrong. Benign issues that had nothing to do with car performance. About wellness of staff, about catering.”

“Catering is something that we’ve always done. The overspend was 0.6 of a percent, $400,000. Really? Has that made the difference? I don’t think so.”

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Despite being rivals, many team bosses found the sanctions to be stern enough to set a good precedent. That is because a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time can prove to be costly for the development of their cars in the future.

Christian Horner warned his team against resting on their past laurels

Red Bull’s success in the 2022 season was nothing short of an enigma. Breaking records left, right, and center, they just operated in a league of their own. However, the budget cap sanctions will arguably make their job harder and that has prompted the team boss to urge his team to pull up their socks.

In an interview from December last year, GP Fans quoted him as saying, “You are learning every race.”

“You learn in this business never to expect a quiet life, especially when you are running at the front,” he added. “Never be complacent about winning and enjoy every result, enjoy every victory and enjoy every moment because it is so well earned and it means so much that they should never be underestimated.”

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Do you think the cost cap breach did not help boost Red Bull’s performance? Let us know in the comments below.