Red Bull fuelled for 2023 by budget cap grievance

Christian Horner, Red Bull, Mexico City GP, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

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Red Bull fuelled for 2023 by budget cap grievance

Team has been given added motivation after punishment

Ian Parkes

Sunday 6 November 2022 09:30

Christian Horner claims the recent budget cap punishment has fanned the flames of motivation for every member of staff at Red Bull.

The team made clear its grievance at falling foul of the new financial regulations that came into force last year, leading to a £1.8million overspend in its drivers' title-winning campaign.

The FIA's Cost Cap Administration imposed a financial penalty of $7million and a sporting punishment of a 10 percent reduction in its windtunnel and CFD programme.

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In claiming the constructors' title this year for the first time since 2014, Red Bull knew that on the sliding scale of aero testing it would have fewer runs and be able to test fewer items compared to its main rivals in Mercedes and Ferrari.

With the additional 10 percent reduction, overall Red Bull will have 38 fewer windtunnel runs than Ferrari and 54 compared to Mercedes, whilst its number of CFD items is down 240 and 340 respectively to the two teams.

Assessing the overall impact on aero testing with regards to the 2023 and '24 car, Horner said: "It will have an effect on both.

"It goes without saying it's a one-to-one effect. We cannot do as many wind tunnel runs, we cannot do as many simulations. That will have a material effect on our performance.

"It's difficult to put a lap-time figure, but one would assume that with these regulations still being immature and development still steep, it could be anywhere between 0.25 and 0.5 of a second [per lap]

"But what we've lost in ATR [aero-testing ratio] we've gained in motivation.

"I've never seen a more motivated group of individuals, that have done an outstanding job last year and this year, in a regulation change that has probably been the biggest in the last 40 years.

"We might have lost 10 percent in ATR but we've gained 25 percent in motivation from every single staff member at Milton Keynes."