The huge fine and penalty received by Red Bull only served to strengthen their motivation and efficiency
The team principal of Red Bull has spoken out about the penalty received for exceeding the budget cap. For him, this sanction only provides additional motivation for the Austrian team. However, this penalty could have a more long-term impact.
At the end of the 2021 season, it was acknowledged that Red Bull had indeed exceeded the budget cap introduced in the same year, of 145 million dollars. As a result, the team was fined seven million dollars and had their wind tunnel time reduced by 10%. But for Christian Horner, this sanction only strengthened the team.
After Red Bull’s ultra dominance in Bahrain, it’s difficult to imagine at what point the Red Bull team was penalized in their development of the 2022 car. Indeed, both drivers achieved a one-two finish and left with the maximum points. On the contrary, Christian Horner sees this sanction as beneficial for the team, as he stated to Autosport, “What we lost in wind tunnel time, we gained in motivation,” says Horner, before specifying that it (the sanction) focuses everyone’s attention in the team and promotes efficiency.
A long-term effect
However, Christian Horner declares that the sanction could have long-term effects, starting with the 2024 season: “It’s something you have to look at over 12 months because it’s not just this year’s car, but also next year’s,” asserts the British technician. This sanction does not seem to shake the performance of the car on track, as Horner claimed last season. He stated that the 10% reduction in wind tunnel time represented a loss of “between a quarter and half a second per lap.” For now, this is not the case, as Mercedes confirmed earlier this season that despite 324 fewer wind tunnel runs, they do not see themselves catching up to Red Bull.
The FIA limits the amount of wind tunnel and CFD (computer simulation) time per season. But most importantly, it automatically reduces it by 5% if the team finishes better than P7 in the previous championship based on cumulative rankings. This time is divided into 6 periods of 6 weeks each, during which the FIA approves tests and teams adhere to them. In total, in 2023, Red Bull will be entitled to 202 wind tunnel runs and 1206 computer simulations, compared to, for example, 256 wind tunnel tests for Mercedes and 1600 simulations.
