F1 cost cap fiasco: McLaren boss stands by his letter accusing Red Bull of cheating

Amidst all the cost cap breach drama for Red Bull over the course of the 2022 F1 season, McLaren boss Zak Brown has been particularly vocal about his thoughts regarding the matter.

Brown sent out a letter to the FIA, indirectly accusing the Milton Keynes-based team of cheating. Red Bull were eventually handed a $7 million fine and Zak Brown continues to defend his strong comments.

As reported by Motorsport.com, Brown admitted that while "cheating" was a strong word used by him, he stands by what he said in the letter. The McLaren boss said:

"I stand by my letter. I think when you break the rules, whether it’s technical and financial, there are many different ways to characterise it. I know it’s such a strong word, but I don’t see any difference between breaking the financial cap versus having too low of a ride height, or whatever the case may be."

He further said:

"If it’s something within the sporting, financial, or technical regulations, a breach of the rules, I guess you could call it a couple of different things. Some people in a more simplistic manner would call it that."

Apart from the tax refund part of Red Bull's explanation for the breach of regulation, catering was named to be one of the major expenditures to be excluded by the team. As reported by Autosport, Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner said:

"But what was included was the entire catering bill of our entire company, so £1.4m worth of food, drink, coffees."

Zak Brown could not make sense of this explanation, emphasizing that costs like this are difficult to "isolate." He said:

"I thought there were things that didn’t make sense. We all have to take care of our employees. We have our employees coming to us saying this team does this, this team does this on food, this team does this on hotels. That then puts you in a competitive position when you are hiring and retaining."

The McLaren boss further mentioned:

"So I think to kind of single out, ‘this is where we spend more money,’ collectively, if that was pushed in the cap, then you’re spending less money somewhere else. I think it all goes into performance. I don’t think you can kind of have isolated selected elements and say it was this part that was out of the cap."

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Max Verstappen describes Red Bull's F1 cost cap penalty as a "heavy punishment"

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen recently commented on the F1 cost cap penalty that Red Bull were handed for breaching the regulations in the 2021 F1 season, describing it as a "heavy punishment."

Speaking to RacingNews365, the Dutchman said:

"Probably everyone is more motivated because of this. I personally think it is a heavy punishment for what we have done, but yes, what can we do about it? It happened and we will see next year what effect it really has had on us."

The real impact of Red Bull's cost cap penalty will only be reflected in the 2023 F1 season.