Red Bull has soccer analogy for F1 cost-cap penalty: Even if you have Messi in the team, it's quite tough to win

Red Bull F1's technical director, Pierre Wache, recently spoke about the difficulty of winning races next year with the penalties imposed on the team. In an interview with RacingNews365, Wache compared Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey to Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, saying:

"I think it's like a football team. If you are playing with ten versus eleven, even if you have Messi in the team, it's quite tough to win the game."

Wache explained that the penalties imposed on the Austrian outfit for next year due to exceeding the cost cap in 2021 will severely limit the performance of the championship team. He made a soccer analogy of how having a legendary player like Lionel Messi on the team does not guarantee success if a few players are missing.

The Frenchman spoke about the excellent aerodynamics department of other teams and how building a car was not a one-man job but a team effort. He said:

"We have a very good aerodynamics department too. It is a competition at each level of the technical levels and at all the levels between teams. We have Adrian [Newey] for sure, he's a big part of the team, but they also have a very good people in their own teams."

He continued, saying:

"The work done on this car is not one person, it's from many people in the team. For sure, we can all work harder, but the others do too."

Red Bull incurred the penalty after a long drama of audits and hearings in which the committee set up by the FIA reviewed submissions made by all the teams. The Austrian team exceeded the cost cap by 1.6% and was therefore fined $7 million and a reduction of 10% in aerodynamic testing allowance for the next 12 months.

Red Bull initially protested the decision, but after an error by the team in the filing of their documents was revealed, they accepted their punishment. Mercedes and Ferrari will be looking to capitalize on the weak Red Bull side which dominated 2021, sweeping both the Constructors' Championship and Drivers' Championship with races to spare.

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Penalty a source for motivation at Red Bull, says technical director

Pierre Wache iterated that the team did not lack motivation due to the penalty, instead using it as fuel for motivation and producing a car better than last year. He said:

"The feeling we get from having less wind tunnel time, we feel a little bit angry about the decision. The motivation is very high to compensate."

Red Bull's chief engineer Adrian Newey will be the deciding factor on whether the team can stave off the challengers to their throne. The legendary British engineer has designed 11 different Constructors' Championship-winning cars, including all of Red Bull's success from 2010 to 2013 and 2020 onwards.