Home

Red Bull switching efforts to 2024 F1 car due to "significant" wind tunnel penalty

Red Bull says that the "significant deficit" it has in wind tunnel time against its Formula 1 rivals forces it to shift focus to its 2024 car now.

The Milton Keynes-based team made F1 history at the Hungarian Grand Prix, as Max Verstappen's triumph meant the squad became the first to win 12 races in a row.

It overhauled the impressive run that McLaren had in 1988 when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost helped it pull off 11 consecutive victories before it was beaten at that year's Italian Grand Prix.

Red Bull's form in Hungary was helped by an upgrade to its sidepods and floor, the biggest tweak it had made so far this season.

Insight: 10 things we learned from the 2023 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix

But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says that the developments may be the last performance updates of the year because the team needs to plan carefully how to allocate its wind tunnel development running as looks towards the RB20.

Speaking about the upgrades, Horner said: "They did what they said on the tin. So, from that point of view, it's sort of box ticked.

"And now, with the handicap that we have, we have to really swing our focus over to next year, because we have a significant deficit of wind tunnel time compared to our competitors, and we have to be very selective in how we use it."

Thanks to F1's Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions, teams that are further ahead in the standings at certain points of the year get less availability for both wind tunnel and CFD runs.

As the championship leader at the mid-season cut-off point, Red Bull gets just 70% of the baseline allocation. This compares with Mercedes at 75%, Aston Martin at 80 and Ferrari at 85%.

Source: Autosport

Previous

Next