"It's deflection": F1 pundit doesn't buy Ferrari's accusation that cost cap breach helped Red Bull

F1 pundit Mark Hughes mentioned that Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur's comments about Red Bull's financial breach penalty were a deflection tactic from the Italian team.

The world champions were penalized by the FIA for overspending on budget cap regulations in the 2021 season. Red Bull will have less wind tunnel time this season as a result of their breach.

However, Vasseur stated that the penalty was minimal and did not do any damage to the Austrian team's charge this season. While appearing on The Race podcast, Hughes said:

"It would require further examination that would take care of the cost cap to do it properly. Fred also talked about Red Bull's breaching of the cost cap being part of their current advantage but I think that's deflection, to be honest."

"I can't really see Red Bull going $400k over the cost cap in 2021 is a major part of the huge advantage they currently have and it is an enormous advantage. That just doesn't tally in scale with how much they went over. I do think it's just a deflection from Fred."

"They did a good job but still the penalty was very light" - Ferrari team principal

The Ferrari team boss accepted that their rival Red Bull had done an excellent job developing their car but mentioned that their penalty was too light. He said:

“Both! They did a good job. Still, the penalty was very light. If you consider the rate of development that we have during the season, the fact that if you have a 10% ban at the end – it’s not something linear. Then you can spend what you are saving somewhere else on weight saving and so on."

“I’m not sure the effect is mega. And if you consider [also] that you have an advantage at the beginning of the season because you spend more the year before… I don’t want to say that they didn’t do a good job because I honestly think that they did a very good job on the car. So, I am not trying to find an excuse at all. It’s not this. But if you ask me if the penalty is too light, I say yes.”

It is possible that this might just be a deflection tactic from Ferrari to mask their lack of performance in comparison to Red Bull. However, it would be interesting to see how the reduced CFD time impacts the world champions later in the season.