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Horner dismisses budget claims

Christian Horner insists Red Bull's success has come while working within the terms of the Resource Restriction Agreement © Sutton Images

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Christian Horner has dismissed claims that Red Bull has been spending above and beyond the Resource Restriction Agreement.

The agreement was drawn up by the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) members in order to prevent costs and staff numbers spiralling out of control. All of the teams must abide by the agreement, and face punishment if they do not. Following an independent audit from Capgemini, it was rumoured that Red Bull had been found to be overspending, but Horner rejected the accusations.

"It is false, absolutely false," Horner told Press Association Sport. "We agreed the scope, we worked within the scope. Job done. We've worked within the RRA, within the regulations that exist. It saved us money, saved the teams money. Unfortunately the consequence of success is people will throw stones."

Horner did admit, however, that the audit had highlighted some "fundamental issues" with the agreement.

"It still needs to be dealt with going forward. There are some fundamental issues that need dealing within it, but overall we feel it's a good thing."

Sauber was another of the teams involved in the audit, and chief executive Monisha Kaltenborn explained that its intentions were not to investigate if teams were sticking to the agreement.

"What Capgemini did was a benchmark study," Kaltenborn said. "They we were looking at methodologies and how they are used. We were not in any way trying to verify the abiding of the RRA. That was not their mandate. It was to see how you interpret the rules and how you use them because the moment you write something in a contract it is always open to interpretation. That was the idea behind it.

"They have since submitted a report, and according to our rules it is now up to the chairman of FOTA (McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh) to assess that and share it with us. As we understand there are one or two issues we shall discuss within FOTA."

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