F1 News: Will Max Verstappen lose 2021 F1 Championship title after Red Bull's budget cap breach? Team advisor gives his take

Amidst the drama regarding Red Bull's breach of the cost cap regulations, team advisor Helmut Marko insists that the prospect of Max Verstappen losing his 2021 world championship title as a result of this is "complete nonsense". The FIA confirmed that Red Bull were in violation of the "Procedural and Minor Overspend Breaches of the Financial Regulations".

Speaking to F1-Insider, Marko claimed that the team continues to deny any such accusations, whilst emphasizing that Max Verstappen is unlikely to lose his maiden title. He said:

“I don’t want to say too much, just this much. We still believe that we didn’t break the cost cap rule at all. Discussions with the FIA are ongoing. Let’s see what finally comes out of it.”

“As I said we are still not aware of any guilt, which is why discussions with the FIA are still ongoing. But rumours Max could lose his World title in 2021, for example, are complete nonsense. The past has shown that even extreme violations of the regulations were punished very mildly by the FIA.”

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, however, was left rather disappointed by how the FIA handled the whole situation. Emphasizing that the Milton Keynes-based team should be appropriately "punished" for any breach of regulation, he said:

“The ladies and gentlemen of the FIA must now face a detailed investigation of how this is even possible. If Red Bull has really broken the rules, it should be punished according to its proportionality. But what the FIA did there doesn’t work at all. Imagine if the Ministry of Finance always kept certain companies up to date on the current status of investigations against the competition. That would even be criminal. Everything must be disclosed transparently and in the event of an offense the ladies or gentlemen of the FIA must be punished accordingly.”

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Max Verstappen still has "a few more years in F1" and the desire to win "more titles"

After securing his second consecutive world championship title at the 2022 F1 Japanese Grand Prix, Max Verstappen revealed that he still has the desire to fight for more Grand Prix wins and titles.

Speaking to Sportskeeda about the prospect of winning more titles with Red Bull, the Dutchman said:

“Well, I mean, I still have a few more years in F1. So I hope that we can be competitive for a few more years. I want to win more races. And potentially, I want to, of course, try and win more titles.”

He added:

“Well, it’s just going to depend on the coming years, right? We have a really good group of people. And I think they also work really well together. So it’s all about just keeping them together. And so if we keep them together, I think they can achieve a lot.”

Max Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull until the end of the 2028 season, making for a long journey between the two beyond the new power unit regulation changes coming in 2026.