Christian Horner says Ferrari criticism of Red Bull's 'tough' cost-cap penalty is 'premature'

Red Bull chief Christian Horner says claims from Ferrari counterpart Frederic Vasseur that his team's Formula 1 cost-cap penalty was not strong enough are "premature".

After admitting a 'minor' breach having gone $2.2m over the $145m spending 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.

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Speaking last week, Vasseur said that Red Bull's strong start to the new campaign had shown that the penalty was "very light".

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Asked by Sky Sports News about Vasseur's comments, Horner said: "Everybody's got an opinion and I think everybody's free to have an opinion.

"The team have done a great job over the winter on limited wind-tunnel time that we've had to develop this car, and of course that will have an impact later into the year and on next year.

"So on a snapshot of three races, I think it's still hugely premature in (terms of) this season, there's an awful lot of racing still to go."

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.

Red Bull's dominance has led to recriminations at rivals Mercedes and Ferrari, who both appeared to be shocked by their early-season deficit to the reigning constructors' champions and are intent on bringing major upgrades to the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix (May 19-21).

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"There's a lot of things that can change," Horner said. "We're hearing of big updates coming for both Ferrari and Mercedes when we get back to Europe.

"So we're certainly not taking anything for granted, we're just focused on ourselves, doing the best job we can within the constraints that we have.

"We're doing the best that we can with what we've got and we know that it's tough penalty, it's one that we're taking on the chin and we're applying ourselves in the best way that we possibly can."

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'Red Bull stronger than before Fallows' departure'

In a major surprise, Red Bull's nearest challengers this season have been Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso finishing third at all three races for his new team.

After finishing seventh in the constructors' standings last year, Aston Martin have enjoyed a meteoric rise to crash the battle for podium finishes at the front of the grid.

Their progress has been aided by the recruitment of key figures from other teams, with Red Bull's former head of aerodynamics Dan Fallows having joined Aston Martin as technical director in April last year.

Horner says he pleased for his former employee, but insisted his design team at Red Bull is now stronger than it was before Fallows' departure.

"In the UK you've got seven teams within probably a 50-mile radius, so inevitably there's going to be competition," Horner said.

"We've had very low turnover of staff in our history at Red Bull, and it's great that we've given talent a chance to develop and achieve great things.

"When they go to other teams, I'm please for Dan that he's doing a good job, but his departure has given other engineers an opportunity and everything's about evolution. The team we have now is even stronger than the one we had two years ago.

"We're always looking inwardly and looking ahead."

The Formula 1 season resumes with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from April 28-30, with the first Sprint weekend of 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