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Ferrari say Red Bull’s strong start to the season is partly due to their being given a “very light” punishment for breaking Formula 1’s budget cap. <\/span><\/p>\n Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says that Red Bull have done a “very good job” but the penalty they were given last October was “very low”.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Red Bull were fined $7m (\u00a36.07m) and given a 10% reduction in permitted aerodynamic research for a year.<\/span><\/p>\n The penalty was for <\/span>breaching the sport’s budget cap by \u00a31.86m<\/span><\/a> in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n Red Bull have dominated the start of the 2023 season, winning all three races.<\/span><\/p>\n “I am still convinced the penalty was very light,” Vasseur said in a news conference on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n “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 one tenth of this, it is [equivalent to a loss of] 0.1secs.<\/span><\/p>\n “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.<\/span><\/p>\n “I don’t want to say they didn’t do a good job because, honestly, they did a very good job on the car. I am not trying to find an excuse at all, but if you ask me if the penalty is too light, I say yes.”<\/span><\/p>\n Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described the penalty at the time as “very harsh” and “pretty draconian”.<\/span><\/p>\n He added at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last month: “It was vital for us to be able to cope with that penalty to have a solid starting point.<\/span><\/p>\n “It was so critical for us to come out of the blocks competitively. The wind tunnel reduction has applied since last October so we couldn’t afford to miss the target because you’d never be able to engineer your way out of it with that handicap.”<\/span><\/p>\nAppeal launched against Sainz penalty<\/h3>\n