Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz believes his Formula 1 team has only the fourth-largest budget in the sport, as he dismissed suggestions it overspent en route to capturing the World Championship last year.
Red Bull Racing has repeatedly denied rumors that it breached F1's Resource Restriction Agreement in 2010, with the team due to submit its financial data to the Formula One Teams' Association at the end of this month. Mateschitz says that claims about overspending are wide of the mark, as he reckons at least three teams are spending more money than his outfit.
"Let me explain this. There was a German journalist who looked into the British company register and counted everything he found together. By doing this, he mixed up the spending of Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Technologies, and STR," Mateschitz told AUTOSPORT. "It was a simple miscalculation and the amount was not correct. We are definitely behind Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes with our budget."
Mateschitz's claims about Red Bull Racing's finances come against the backdrop of another record-breaking year of sales for his energy drink, with the company shipping 4.24 billion cans of Red Bull in 2010, with a turnover of 3.8 billion euros [$5.1b].