Confirmed: Max Verstappen will not be stripped of World Championship title

Red Bull Racing fans will be relieved to learn that Max Verstappen's 2021 Drivers' World Championship title is safe. However, Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton fans are currently fuming after the FIA finally revealed the extent of punishment that the governing body will impose upon the Austrian team following their cost cap breach last season.

The FIA confirmed earlier this month that they have found Red Bull Racing guilty of going over the £114million budget cap last season. However, it took them a few more weeks to finally come to a decision when it comes to the actual penalties that the team should face.

Team principal Christian Horner is understood to have been in constant talks with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem over the past few weeks, and had been insisting that as per their interpretation of the rules, they had stayed under the allowed budget.

Nevertheless, it has now been announced that Red Bull will have to pay a fine of £6million. Furthermore, in terms of receiving punishment in the sporting sense, the team will also face limits for their aerodynamic testing.

Parts of the FIA statement read: "AMR GP Limited (Red Bull Racing) was found to be in breach, however, the Cost Cap Administration recognised that Red Bull Racing has acted cooperatively throughout the review process and has sought to provide additional information and evidence when requested in a timely manner, that this is the first year of the full application of the Financial Regulations and that there is no accusation or evidence that RBR has sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in fraudulent manner, nor has it wilfully concealed any information from the Cost Cap Administration."

"In these circumstances, the Cost Cap Administration offered to RBR an ABA to resolve this matter. That offer was accepted by RBR.

"An Accepted Breach Agreement ("ABA") dated 26 October 2022 was therefore entered into by and between the Cost Cap Administration and Red Bull Racing pursuant to Article 6.28 of the FIA Formula 1 Financial Regulations ("Financial Regulations")."

Red Bull had previously claimed that there was some confusion as to which expenses should be included in the budget, leading them to go over due to expenses unrelated to car development such as cafeteria meals for employees and sick leave payouts.

Meanwhile, rival teams such as Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren have been pushing for harsher punishment especially in the sporting sense. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton even said that teams will deliberately go over the budget moving forward if it meant having improved performance in exchange for a small fine.