Frederic Vasseur Slams ‘Mild’ Red Bull Budget Penalty

Frederic Vasseur has hit out at the “very mild” penalty imposed for Red Bull’s budget cap breach.

The Ferrari boss said the dominant title-winning and title-leading team losing 10 per cent of its wind tunnel time on top of a $7 million fine “was not a penalty”.

“I don’t want to say they didn’t do a good job, because I honestly think they did a very good job on the car,” the Frenchman said. “And I’m not trying to find an excuse at all.

“It’s not that. But if you ask me if the penalty was too light, I say yes. I think it was not a penalty. It was very low.

“If you consider that, basically, we will improve a little less than a second during the season in terms of aerodynamics, and you get the penalty of 10 per cent of this, it is a tenth,” the new Ferrari team principal said.

“And since it’s not a linear progression, it’s probably even less than that, and you can spend this money elsewhere. For me the penalty was marginal,” he insisted.

“And if you consider that you have an advantage at the start of the season because you spent more the year before – I don’t want to say that they didn’t do a good job, because I honestly think they did a very good job on the car.”