The motor sports governing organization (FIA) said on Monday that Red Bull and Aston Martin had been found in violation of the financial regulations for Formula 1.
The FIA added that any penalty will be considered at a later time.
Red Bull, the team that produced world champion Max Verstappen, was found to have “procedural and small expenditure violations of the Financial Regulations,” while Aston Martin had a “procedural infringement of the Financial Regulations,” according to the FIA.
The FIA said that it was “at the moment deciding the proper course of action to be taken.”
A “small overspend violation” is defined as exceeding a team’s overall spending limit by less than 5%. This might “result in financial fines and/or minor sporting sanctions,” according to the statement.
The Cost Cap Administration of the FIA completed an assessment of the financial information provided by each team for 2021 and “granted certifications of conformity to seven of the ten,” according to the FIA.
Williams was the third exception; there had been an issue with “a prior procedural violation” that the team “remediated” in a “timely, cooperative, and open way.”
The statement emphasized that the FIA had restricted itself “to assessing the reports submitted by the competitors and that no full official investigations were undertaken” since the season under review was the first to have a cost cap.
According to the statement, the Cost Cap Administration’s initial course of action was to reach a settlement with the engaged team.
The cost cap aims to reduce expenditure in order to make the sport financially sustainable and to level the playing field amongst clubs.
“The rules are exceedingly complicated, reflecting the complexity of the sport as a whole,” the statement said.
Additionally, it said that “all teams throughout the process operated at all times in a spirit of good faith and collaboration.”