Horner suggests how FIA should use Red Bull fine money

Christian Horner hopes the FIA will make good use of Red Bull's $7 million cost cap fine and suggests the money should perhaps benefit "struggling championships", a reference to the W Series' woes.

Red Bull Racing was hit last week with the hefty financial penalty for breaching F1's cost cap regulations in 2021, and the team has 30 days to pay the fine.

As a non-profit organization, the FIA has said that it will channel the money back into the sport at the grassroots level.

• Read also: W Series 2022 season cut short by funding issues

But Horner alluded to the all-female W Series - which has found itself in dire straits and is in urgent need of fresh funding - as a championship that would benefit from part of the cash.

"It’s an enormous amount of money and obviously it’s down to the FIA what it chooses to do with that money. We just hope it gets put to good use," Horner said last weekend in Mexico City.

"Obviously, we see championships that are struggling at the moment and hopefully it can do some good."

Coupled with the sporting sanction imposed on Red Bull, represented by a 10 percent reduction in aerodynamic development times, Horner called the punishment levied upon his team "draconian".

But while $7 million is no small sum, Horner admitted that such a financial burden won't have a material impact on Red Bull Racing's bottom line given the growth enjoyed by Formula 1 in the past few years and the sport's strong commercial success which has trickled down to the teams.

"In terms of the material effect on Red Bull Racing, this year has been a strong year for us," Horner explained.

"Indeed, the amount of money we will receive from Liberty this year will exceed the cap itself, so Formula 1 is in rude health, sponsorship income is strong, and the commercial revenue.

"It’s why the cost cap does need looking at because you have a prize fund exceeding the cap for the first three or four teams.

"Even the teams at the back of the grid are probably going to have 70 to 80 percent of their costs covered by the prize fund."

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