Carry-over ‘B-car’ gives optimism for 2021 – Horner

Christian Horner has revealed next year’s Red Bull has so much carry-over design from this season the team has decided to designate it a ‘B-car’.

Formula 1 cars typically undergo a full re-design between seasons, but greater restrictions on development, coupled with a focus on major new rules for 2022, have reduced the amount of time teams are spending on its new machines.

As a result, significant parts of the existing car will not be touched for next season, leading team principal Horner to reveal: “We called the new car 16B as opposed to 17 because there’s so much of it that is carry-over.

“It’s not a start from scratch again. A large percentage of the car, probably about 60 per cent of it, is carry-over. Gearbox, chassis, elements like suspension, so a large element of the car is fixed, it’s mainly aerodynamic that can be altered.”

Mercedes switched off development on its existing car earlier this year to focus its efforts specifically on next year and also on conceptual ideas for the 2022 machine, which will follow a significant change in regulations.

As Horner explained, aerodynamics is the area in which teams can make the biggest steps for 2021, but the Red Bull boss is not concerned that its rivals might have made a step forward by stopping development on its current car.

“Our philosophy has been that whatever you learn this year you carry on into next year anyway,” he added. “Where we start in a couple of months’ time is going to be pretty much where we finish here with development upgrades on it.

“We’ve seen they [Mercedes] have been bringing in some components to the car. Of course, we expect them to be very strong next year but if we can build on this momentum hopefully we can give them a harder time.”

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