Red Bull must be "choosy" over where it develops "prototype" RB18

Red Bull

Red Bull must be "choosy" over where it develops "prototype" RB18

The team launched its 2022 challenger as a show car

Ewan Gale

Sunday 13 February 2022 08:00

Christian Horner has conceded Red Bull will have to "be really choosy" of where it spends money to develop its "prototype" RB18 this year.

F1 has introduced radically altered regulations that have swept the developmental slate clean, meaning any machinery launched ahead of the season will continuously evolve across the coming seasons.

Unlike during past regulation changes, F1 is imposing a budget cap on teams which forces a savvy approach to development.

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"The car is a prototype and basically, at every race it is evolving, it will never run in the same configuration twice so it is constantly evolving," explained Horner at Red Bull's car launch.

"Now we have to do that within the framework of the financial regulations.

"So we have to be really choosy of where are we going to spend our money to develop this car this year."

Addressing the changes, Horner suggested: "It is the biggest rule change we have seen in the last 30 years so everything about the chassis has changed for this year.

"The purpose of the change in the design is to allow the cars to follow each other more closely to create better overtaking opportunities and to create closer wheel-to-wheel racing.

"We saw plenty of that last year so if we get that even closer through these regulations this year, it is going to be an epic season."

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