F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Weighs In On Red Bull Cost Cap Breach – Adds Fuel To The Fire
The F1 budget cap controversy train keeps chugging through the week after the FIA declined to release its certification yesterday, instead moving the date to next week.
It’s rumoured that Red Bull and Aston Martin have both blown through the cost cap set for the 2021 F1 calendar. And if this is true, it could mean that the 2021 championship held by the energy drink racing team could be up for grabs by the likes of Mercedes, specifically, Lewis Hamilton.
The ‘analysis of the 2021 financial submissions’ will be released by the FIA on Monday 10th October, meaning the teams will race as usual during the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. But, when they are released, expect there to be upheaval from fans regardless of what is revealed.
Hamilton has now weighed in, adding his thoughts to Red Bull’s rumoured price cap breach:
“I remember last year in Silverstone we had our last upgrade, and fortunately, it was great, and we could fight with it,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“But then we would see Red Bull every weekend or every other weekend bring in upgrades. They had, I think, at least four more upgrades from that point.
“If we had spent 300,000 on a new floor, or an adapted wing, it would have changed the outcome of the championship, naturally, because we would have been in better competition in the next race you had it on. So I hope that that’s not the case, for the sport.”
It hasn’t yet been confirmed that any of the teams on the grid have breached the cost cap, but the FIA has stated what the punishments would be, splitting it into a “minor” and “major” category depending on how much the cost cap has been breached by. The former is up to 5% over, the latter is over that amount.
“I do believe that Mohammed (Ben Sulayem) and the FIA will do what is right with whatever they find out,” Hamilton ends.
