Alonso on Red Bull: “They won by exploiting a grey area”

Alonso was a Ferrari driver in 2010 and 2012 when he lost out on the championship to Vettel, who was with Red Bull.

A decade later Red Bull are in talks with the FIA over their punishment for a “minor” breach of the 2021 F1 cost cap (the budget was $145m).

• FIA ‘make offer’ to Red Bull over cost cap breach - will they accept it?

"This has always been part of F1,” Alonso said at the F1 United States Grand Prix. 

“This is a new thing we implemented recently, the cost cap, but there were always things aerodynamically that you could explore, some grey areas.

"And always people who won the championships, they won exploiting that grey area. And then the other teams copy and they eventually get to that level or they ban that thing that was allowed for one or two races."

Alonso cited the Ferrari engine saga of 2019 - the Italian team came to a private settlement with the FIA over the legality of their machinery, before their performance dropped rapidly the following year.

"Ferrari won I think two races in 2019 with something we all knew was not legal and nothing happened,” said Alonso who was absent from F1 in 2019. 

“They kept those wins. It's quite amazing. 

“Imagine that they won the championship in 2019 with that engine. It is very difficult and we need to rely on the people who have the power and trust them."

Max Verstappen has called Red Bull’s rivals “hypocritical” for their views on the cost cap row.

Valtteri Bottas, whose Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton lost the title to Verstappen last year at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, was particularly vocal in his criticism.