Red Bull’s 2023 F1 pace shows cost cap penalty was ‘very light’, says Ferrari chief Frederic Vasseur

Red Bull have started the 2023 Formula 1 season in dominant fashion despite contending with a reduction in their wind tunnel time for breaching the 2021 cost cap; Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says he is convinced the penalty was “very light”

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says Red Bull’s strong start to the 2023 Formula 1 season shows their penalty for breaching the sport’s cost cap in 2021 was “very light”.

After admitting a ‘minor’ breach having gone $2.2m over the $145m limit for 2021, Red Bull were in October 2022 handed a $7m fine and a 10 per cent reduction in wind tunnel time for a 12-month period.

The penalty appears to have had little impact to this point, with Red Bull dominating the early stages of the 2023 season, winning all three races, with one-twos in the first two of them.

Ferrari came second in the constructors’ standings last year as Red Bull ended Mercedes’ streak of eight successive titles, but neither appear to have the pace to compete with the reigning champions this year.

“I am still convinced the penalty was very light,” Vasseur said in a news conference on Thursday.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Highlights of the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Circuit

“If you consider we will improve [the car’s performance by] a bit less than one second over the season in terms of aero, [and] you get a penalty of 10 per cent of this, it’s one tenth, it is [equivalent to a loss of] 0.1secs.

“As it is not a linear progression, it is probably less, and as you are allowed to spend this money somewhere else, on weight saving and so on, for me the penalty is marginal.

Max Verstappen, who is seeking a third successive drivers’ championship having claimed his maiden title in 2021, won the season opener in Bahrain and the most recent race in Australia, while team-mate Sergio Perez triumphed in Saudi Arabia.

Red Bull’s remarkable pace was emphasised by Verstappen taking just half the race to advance from 15th on the grid to second in Saudi Arabia after a technical failure had seen the Dutchman eliminated in the first part of qualifying.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley shares his thought on how long it will take to see the effects of Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur’s leadership

Ferrari, meanwhile, have made a hugely disappointing start to the season, scoring just a total of 26 points across the three races after two retirements for Charles Leclerc.

“I don’t want to say they [Red Bull] didn’t do a good job because, honestly, they did a very good job on the car,” Vasseur said.

“I am not trying to find an excuse at all, but if you ask me if the penalty is too light, I say yes.

“I’m not sure the effect [of the penalty] is mega. And if you consider [also] that you have an advantage at the beginning of the season because you spend more the year before.”

Ferrari to bring Barcelona update forward to Imola

Despite a nightmare result in Australia, with Carlos Sainz’s controversial late penalty leaving Ferrari pointless, Vasseur was positive over his team’s pace in Melbourne and says they are working to “speed up” more updates.

Ferrari had gone into the season as the team most expected to be Red Bull’s closest challengers, while Vasseur, who replaced Mattia Binotto during the off-season, had made it clear his target was titles.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Carlos Sainz was furious at being handed a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Fernando Alonso

However, a lack of pace in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, along with reliability issues that saw Leclerc retire from the opener and face a grid penalty in Jeddah, has cast major doubt over Ferrari’s hopes of winning races this season, let alone titles.

“You always have a plan of development before the season and then you have to react to the circumstances, the competitiveness and behaviour of the car,” Vasseur said.

“We took action very quickly, we brought some good updates in Melbourne and we will continue.

“What we can do is to push to try to speed up this process… but we can’t change massively the plan after three races.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Leclerc made contact with Lance Stroll and the Ferrari driver’s race was over in the first lap in Melbourne

“With the restrictions to the wind tunnel, if you were to start from scratch – I don’t want to say it makes no sense, but it’s very difficult.

“That means we will adapt to the circumstances, we will speed up, we will put all the resources to speed up the process.

“The update that we planned for Barcelona will come in Imola [at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix] – we’ll have one or two races the update in advance.”

The Formula 1 season resumes with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from April 28-30, with the first Sprint weekend of the 2023 shown in full live on Sky Sports F1. Watch Saturday’s Sprint at 2:30pm and Sunday’s race at 12pm. Get Sky Sports