Horner’s budget cap joke: « you’re all in marketing »
Red Bull has released a video of the final moments of the season, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It shows Christian Horner telling his team « it's all marketing », a joke in reference to the famous overrun of the cap budget, which does not include marketing costs.
After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull posted a video on their Twitter account compiling “the final moments” of the last race of the season. In it, we see the relaxed world championship team joking about various subjects. However, one remark undoubtedly caught the attention of internet users, and it came from Christian Horner, the boss of Red Bull Racing.
Towards the end of the video, we see the British man say to his (numerous) colleagues, presumably before taking a photo: “This team doesn’t shrink, does it?” One of his team members responds: “No, it grows every year.” At that moment, Christian Horner finds it funny to joke: “You are all in marketing, you will soon be in marketing.”
Volume up for the final Audio Moments of 2022 🔊😄 pic.twitter.com/J6He6VSEWA
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) November 21, 2022
Behind this sarcasm lies a thinly veiled reference to the budget cap of the year 2021, which Red Bull exceeded by £1.8 million. However, the costs of the marketing department are not included in the budget cap. Christian Horner hints that he could potentially manipulate Red Bull’s actual expenses by deceptively excluding certain costs, such as marketing.
Furthermore, it should be noted that in the FIA’s list of the 13 adjusted or excluded cost categories that were mishandled by Red Bull Racing in their request for cost caps in 2021, the overstated excluded costs under article 3.1(a) of the Financial Regulations regarding catering were ranked first. This refers to the costs of catering at the facility and the impossibility of separating the costs of employee meals that are not included in the budget cap, such as administration and marketing, from those that are. The FIA insisted on including the total catering costs.
This budget cap issue caused a lot of turmoil a few weeks ago, when the FIA’s sanction on this matter was (long) awaited. The Austrian team finally received a fine of 7 million euros for exceeding the additional limit of 1.8 million pounds sterling.
Under pressure from other teams, who believed that the FIA had to take an exemplary measure, Red Bull also received a sporting sanction, reducing its 2023 wind tunnel time quota by 10%. Many rumors speculated about a retroactive deduction of points in the 2021 championship, or even expulsion from the 2022 championship, but these sanctions would have been excessive, as the FIA concluded that it was a “minor infraction” of the regulations.
