Red Bull have now fully switched their focus and resources on their car for 2017 team boss Christian Horner has revealed.
The Milton Keynes-based team are hoping the raft of aerodynamic changes coming in for next season will help them challenge Mercedes’ recent dominance and claim a first championship since 2013.
Upgrades do remain in the pipeline for the remainder of this season but these have already been designed and tested and simply await implementation on both Daniel Ricciardo’s and Max Verstappen’s respective cars.
This season has marked a significant step forward for Red Bull since the new engine regulations came in three years ago with the team now regularly outperforming Ferrari.
Not one to rest on their laurels, however, Adrian Newey and his design team have chosen to abandon any major upgrades for the remainder of the season, in favour of hitting the ground running on the RB13 with the aim of being competitive right from the start of next season.
“Now the whole factory is focused on 2017, there are little bits and pieces [for the 2016 car] but nothing major,” Horner told Autosport.
While neither driver managed to make the podium in Monza, Red Bull are still confident of a good showing under the Singapore floodlights, a track where they finished second and fourth a year ago.
“It is a different type of circuit, where we expect to be stronger. Hopefully, we can get closer to Ferrari and give them a harder time than we did in Monza.”
“Monza is a pure horsepower circuit, slow-speed corners, long straights, so it’s very clear where things are at.
“We’re in a better position to where we were 12 months ago, but there is still some way to go to close that down. But we know that there are circuits coming up which should suit more the characteristics of our car.
“Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Mexico are theoretically all tracks which should be reasonable for us.”
