FIA slams 'baseless' rumours as budget cap saga delayed

Oct.6 (GMM) F1’s governing body has slammed the latest “baseless” speculation about Red Bull’s alleged breach of the 2021 budget cap.

The Formula 1 world had been holding out for Wednesday’s scheduled release of the certificates confirming that teams had complied with the cap.

That has now been delayed until the day after the Japanese GP.

“The FIA also reiterates that any suggestion that FIA personnel have disclosed sensitive information is equally baseless,” the FIA insisted in a statement.

It could be that the FIA, perhaps in collaboration with the commercial rights holder Liberty Media, concluded that Max Verstappen’s potential title win on Sunday should not be overly clouded by the budget cap saga.

Another possibility is that Red Bull applied pressure so that the home race of its ever-closer power unit partner could go ahead without controversy at Honda-owned Suzuka.

Indeed, Red Bull announced that new Honda logos will be added to the four Red Bull-owned cars from Japan until at least the end of the season.

“With these new agreements, we are proud to continue going from strength to strength with the technical support from HRC until the next generation of engines are introduced in 2026,” said Dr Helmut Marko, who had meetings with Honda executives between the Singapore and Japanese races.

Honda is also considering ramping up its Red Bull collaboration for 2026 and beyond, after talks about a 50 percent buy-out of the team by Porsche recently collapsed.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, another potential Red Bull partner for the next set of engine regulations is Hyundai, with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said to have recently met with officials of the South Korean carmaker.