Verstappen: Our silly rivals should shut it

MAX VERSTAPPEN has told other teams to ‘keep their mouths shut’ rather than accuse Red Bull of breaching Formula one’s budget cap. the FIA are not due to announce whether any team have exceeded the £114million spending limit until Wednesday, but mercedes and Ferrari have implied that their bitter rivals have done so. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has threatened to start legal proceedings over the accusations, insisting the remarks are ‘defamatory’ and ‘inaccurate’. He said last night he was ‘not nervous at all’ as he awaits the results of the FIA’s financial auditing. Verstappen was asked if he was content the allegations would not present a problem. ‘With what I hear from the team, yes,’ he said. ‘other teams talk about it while they have no information so I find that a bit silly. Just keep your mouths shut.’ any team found in breach of the cost cap could face punishments ranging from a reprimand to the docking of drivers’ and constructors’ points.

But Horner added: ‘We will consider all our options. It was totally unacceptable to make an unfounded allegation and on the basis of what? Where is this source of information? It was a confidential submission. I have no idea of the compliance of any of our rivals.

‘We need to complete the entire process. these are brand-new regulations which are highly complicated. and, of course, there are different interpretations. So it will be interesting to see how this is applied.’