Only the one who gets caught is called a cheater. The budget cap regulations brought an end to Mercedes’ clinical dominance during the turbo-hybrid era. The regulation is supposed to stop the teams, especially the Big Three, from spending their way out of trouble and reward good engineering. However, some habits are hard to get rid of and so was the case with “illegitimate” Red Bull. The Austrian team is now seeking vengeance for the allegations imposed by rival teams last year.

Red Bull breached the Cost Cap for the 2022 F1 season and, as a result, was fined 7 Million Dollars and a 10% reduction in wind tunnel testing time. Despite the penalties, the bulls cruised to an easy 1-2 at the 2023 Bahrain GP like it was bread n butter. Their sheer dominance caused a stir up and down the paddock. Teams are now questioning their engineering prowess and decision-making with speculations of people getting fired.

Touching upon this crucial topic, the British motorsport journalist Joe Saward wrote on his Twitter handle saying, “We are now seeing Red Bull’s revenge for last year’s cost cap campaigns that rival teams stirred up. It made RB people angry. When one team blows the others away, the rivals start to fray at the edges. Watch now as people get fired and structures are rethought…“

One can only wonder if the only way of beating Red Bull is by poaching their personnel like Aston Martin did. Look where Aston ended up this season. The question that arises is what stops the other teams from overspending to gain an advantage and then taking a penalty the following season? Red Bull breached the regulations once and was reaping the fruits of the seeds that were sown last year.

DIVE DEEPER

The never-ending budget cap saga is keeping us hooked as the developments in the storyline keep branching and fans have some stern reactions toward this particular topic of discussion.

Fans react to Red Bull desiring payback after they were caught cheating 

Carlos Sainz finished P4 behind the “Three Red bulls”. The gap to Max Verstappen was 48 seconds. And that too when Max was not pushing at the front. Fans have expressed their outrage by taking to Twitter expressing how hypocritical Red Bull is for cheating and then seeking revenge simultaneously. 

Watch this story: Max Verstappen set for huge new Red Bull deal, reported to be worth over $53 million per year

What are your thoughts on Red Bull’s breach of the cost cap and then seeking revenge for the same? Do you think the penalty was justified? Are the fans right in expressing their outrage?