Jacques Villeneuve doubts Red Bull's cost cap breach will damage Formula 1, the Canadian also pushing back against the notion that the team's transgression was an act of cheating.
Last week, the FIA released the results of its analysis of Red Bull's accounts and revealed the sanction it has levied upon the Milton Keynes-based outfit for exceeding its mandatory $145 million by £1.4 million, or approximately $1.6 million.
Red Bull was subsequently handed a $7 million fine and a 10% reduction of its aerodynamic development time over the next twelve months.
Villeneuve found that all things taken into account, it's hard to determine whether Red Bull's penalty is "draconian" as team boss Christian Horner claims it is, or if it is too lenient as several of RBR's rivals have stated.
"It was also, of course, about Cashgate in Mexico, although it won’t damage the sport," Villeneuve wrote in his post-race column for Dutch website Formule1.nl
"When McLaren got that mega fine of 100 million [in 2007], that didn’t happen either.
"The ruling and the penalty for Red Bull have not yet made it clear to me what is and is not allowed and what penalty you get for that.
"And then there was that tax setback, otherwise the excess would have been less than a million. So I find it hard to say whether the penalty is severe enough."
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Regardless of whether the sanction was warranted or not, Villeneuve insists Red Bull's breach was "not cheating".
"At least it’s not cheating," commented the Canadian. "Lying about traction control, that’s cheating.
"Whether it [the cost cap breach] would have made any difference in the outcome this year, I doubt. Red Bull is so strong that they would have won anyway."
Finally, the 1997 F1 world champion has offered a suggestion about what the FIA should do with the $7 million it is set to collect from Red Bull.
"What bothers me is that the FIA is now collecting seven million dollars," added Villeneuve. "So it has hardly any effect for Red Bull and the other teams don’t get a penny from it.
"The ten per cent less time in the wind tunnel does hurt, that will slow them down. But it doesn’t gain the others lap time, some of the penalty money would help. Just divide that among the teams."
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