The 10% reduction is not in their financial budget but it is a reduction in the amount of time they can spend in their wind tunnel or use computational fluid dynamics to design their cars.
“We have been provided a significant financial and sporting penalty - $7m is an enormous amount of money and the more draconian part is the sporting penalty, which is a 10% reduction in our ability to use our wind tunnel and aerodynamic tools,” said Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal.
“That is an enormous amount. That represents between 0.25secs and 0.5secs of lap time. It comes in from now and will be in place for a 12-month period and will have an impact on development of our 2023 car.”
The punishment came after Red Bull had agreed to go into negotiations with FIA.
“Why have we accepted it? We felt it was in everyone’s interests to close the book. We accept the penalties - begrudgingly, but we accept them,” Horner added.
“Verstappen [was a] hugely deserving champion,” he told BBC Sport.
“[There will] inevitably [be] partisan support on either side but the reality is he did the job, he won the race at the final GP of the year and 2021 is now confined to the history books.”
With the announcement of the punishment, the FIA also stated:
“There is no accusation or evidence that Red Bull Racing has sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in a fraudulent manner, nor has it wilfully concealed any information from the Cost Cap Administration,” the FIA Statement said.
In addition to Red Bull, the FIA also fined Aston Martin for procedural breaches.
Zak Brown of McLaren welcomed the punishments saying:
‘We appreciate the cost cap investigation is a complex process which the FI have conducted in a thorough and transparent manner.”
“I’m pleased the truth is out there now and it is the result is as we expected - there was a breach of the cost cap by one team, with the other nine operating in line with the rules. It is therefore only right that punitive action is taken.”
“If the FIA is to be most effective and its punishments serve as a lesson to others when rules are broken in this way, the sanctions have to be much stronger in the future.”
‘We hope that the lessons learned through this process will now mean all teams have a clear understanding of the rules in order to avoid any future breaches. While we are pleased to see them act, we would hope the FIA take stronger action in future against those that wilfully break the rules.”