Brown praises FIA but budget breaches 'need to be dealt with swiftly'

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has praised motorsport's governing body the FIA for how it's handled the complex issues surrounding Formula 1's new cost cap but says it's too early to really judge until penalties are announced for breaches.

The findings of a review of team budgets for 2021 was published at the start of last week, with Red Bull found to have committed a minor overspend in breach of the regulations.

Red Bull said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the findings. Aston Martin was cited for a procedural breach but came in below below the cap, while other teams including McLaren also meeting the spending limit.

• Read also: Mercedes ready to breach F1 cost cap if Red Bull escapes strong sanction

“The FIA has done a really good job on the cost cap," Brown stated. "You can go to them and ask them anything: ‘Hey, is this included? Is this not included?'

"They have been unbelievably collaborative, communicative and clear. And if anything was unclear then the obligation was on the teams to ask."

The FIA is yet to announce the penalty that could be levied against Red Bull for going over budget. Fines, reprimands, loss of some aerodynamic or other testing time or a reduction of the cost cap in future seasons are all possibilities

A loss of championship points or an outright exclusion from the championship and/or suspension from one or more stages is also possible.

A loss of constructors points would do relatively little harm given the team's 200-plus points advantage in second place in the final standings over Ferrari. But a significant penalty affecting lead driver Max Verstappen could change the outcome of the 2021 drivers championship and hand it to Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.

When the cost cap was agreed, F1 director of motorsport Ross Brawn said: “If you fraudulently breach the financial regulations, you will be losing your championship so it has serious consequences if teams breach these regulations.”

At this point it's not been implied that Red Bull showed any such fraudulent intent, and the amount of overspend - anything from $1 to $7.2 million - is also unknown and could be a factor in any penalty.

But the fact remains that Red Bull went over budget while all the other nine teams on the grid complied. Mercedes and Ferrari bosses have been calling for strict penalties against Red Bull.

"When you go over budget you go over budget, it needs to be dealt with swiftly and transparently," Brown acknowledged. “I think it’s now all about how they [the FIA] handle it moving forward.

“Everyone’s kind of like, ‘Well, they haven’t had transparency’ but it’s not over yet. I think we can’t judge them on their transparency.

"It was good that they said, ‘It’s not coming on Wednesday, it’s going to come on Monday’, they were clear," he said, referring to the five day delay in making the initial announcement on the cost cap.

“Transparency doesn’t necessarily mean ‘I give you all the answers tomorrow’," he argued. "It’s ‘I give you visibility of what’s coming.’.

"We’re not done yet, so I think it’s too early to judge them until we see the final results.”

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