While most of the attention has been on Red Bull during Formula 1’s rumbling cost cap controversy, Aston Martin has also been dragged into it.
Speculation that it had also committed a budget cap offence has proven accurate, however Aston Martin has not been found guilty of any overspend.
It has committed a procedural breach, understood to relate to several administrative accounting protocols.
Essentially, Aston Martin’s offence relates to process rather than spending too much money, and in turn means no competitive advantage has been gained.
It is similar in nature to Williams’s breach earlier in the year, the first offence of the budget cap era.
That means initial links to a more serious offence were clearly incorrect and it was already understood by the end of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, where this situation emerged and quickly escalated, that any Aston Martin would be procedural at worst.
At the same time, Aston Martin made it clear it was surprised to be spoken of in relation to budget cap breaches.
“We were surprised to read our name in this thing,” said team principal Mike Krack in Singapore
“We don’t think we have done anything majorly wrong.”
Reading between the lines, news that the breach was procedural probably came as little surprise.
But it is understood to be something Aston Martin still regrets because it has denied it a compliance certificate that an underspend should have earned, and the team has taken the budget cap extremely seriously while managing its expansion as a team with more resources than before.
Being linked with an outright breach was more damaging, of course, and Krack had already admitted that while the team was “not stressed about it” it found it “upsetting”.
Red Bull was extremely vocal about the implications of these accusations, threatening legal action against its rivals for the speculation they triggered.
But Aston Martin largely kept quiet and has still not commented publicly, whereas Red Bull has challenged the FIA’s judgement that it broke the budget cap.
Aston Martin can at least feel a sense of vindication that the FIA has confirmed it did not do the same.
It will continue to cooperate with the FIA, having done so fully so far, as it awaits news of what its punishment will be.
But the team should already be separated from a grander controversy that it was initially lumped in with.
