Red Bull has confirmed it will now turn its attention to next year’s car as it faces a “significant deficit” to its Formula 1 rivals.
At the end of last year, Red Bull was found to have exceeded the 2021 cost cap and was handed a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time spanning a 12-month period.
But while the penalty has limited how much the Milton Keynes-based outfit can develop its car, Max Verstappen’s win in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix saw it become the first team to win 12 consecutive races.
Red Bull’s tally overhauls the previous record of 11 set by McLaren in 1988, with its run of victories stretching back to the 2022 season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Despite a healthy lead in both championships, Red Bull brought updated sidepods and a new floor to Hungary, but team boss Christian Horner has indicated these will be the last upgrades it will introduce this year.
Horner said the reason for this is because Red Bull needs to use as much of the time allocation it is allowed to begin work on its 2024 challenger.
“They did what they said on the tin. So, from that point of view, it’s sort of box ticked,” Horner said on the updates, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“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.”
F1’s aerodynamic sliding scale means Red Bull, together with its aero penalty applied, is restricted to 63% worth of development in both wind tunnel time and CFD runs.
The sanction does not cease until October this year, which Horner said makes a huge difference to what his team can do in terms of car development compared to its rivals.
“We have that [cost cap] penalty until October this year, so particularly in terms of the amount of runs that you can do per week, we’re significantly down compared to second and third place,” he said.
“And we are massively down once you get back to teams that are fourth or fifth. And if you compare McLaren’s amount of runs they can do in a wind tunnel versus ourselves, it’s a huge, huge difference.
“So, of course, we have to be very, very selective in the running that we’re doing. And that’s why the engineering team back in Milton Keynes are doing an incredible job in the way that they’re effectively and efficiently developing the car.”
