The finest preferential treatment money can buy. Probably why they've exceeded the budget cap [allegedly].
There was a time when Schumacher never got a penalty, until he straight up kamikaze'd Villeneuve and there was really no alternative. Vettel was the golden child who could do no wrong, then Hamilton, now max. Maybe it's no so much the penalty's but how much they're highlighted because they're always at the front or thereabouts. Despite the dominance the redbull/max, I think this has been a really good season so far. Plenty of action, drama, love, betrayal, and we've still got the results of budget gate to come. McLaren's performance and the downfall on Danny ric has put a bit of a dampner on it, but that did lead to a rather entertaining silly season. The paywall is a shitter, I would love for them to punt it on terrestrial, bit it's been a long time coming. Just have to keep a backup stream ready
So they allow what they consider to be a lie to be used as a "mitigating circumstance"? Should have slapped him with an extra 5 seconds for the lie...
https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bull-alphatauri-strengthen-partnership-honda/ Is anyone truly surprised? In another year or two it'll be Red Bull Honda again. Amazing how winning shores up a boardroom's resolve.
Waiting for the announcement that do to the global recession VW group decides it is not the time to enter F1
Not even a week later, Max swerves across the track in front of a car on lap like a complete twunt, grid penalty, slam dunk. Except it's Red Bull and we can't give the golden children a penalty...
So now Max has an asterisk next to both of his championships, or is it two asterisks on the first and one on the second? Let's see what the FIA defines as a 'minor' breach and how Ferrari and Mercedes react.
I look forward to RBR suffering 0 meaningful consequences from this. Cue them throwing the book at Strolling Martin for extra inconsistency. EDIT: this comment from when the cap was introdduced will probably age spectacularly badly too - Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date
Tbf he did say "fraudulently" but it does make it somewhat of a farce if you can "accidently" overspend and still keep all the benefits that go with that. Impossible to tell where an overspend occurred - last years car or this years car but ultimately, depending on the magnitude of overspend, it could be a significant benefit to development. I suspect if the amount over spent is less than £1million they'll get some rapped knuckles and nothing more. Imagine the chaos if they lose enough points to make a difference to the standings.
And imagine the precedent it sets if they get a wrist slap. Other teams [and we all know which ones] might be minded to go 'oh we can go over by a little, claim we didn't mean it is just eat the penalty/fine' Kinda like Engine penalties stopped being [and probably never were] a discouragement from exceeding their 3 a year, they're now just a thing you have to factor into your strategic workings.
