Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says that the punishment his team received for exceeding the budget ceiling has given his team extra motivation.
In 2021, Red Bull exceeded the budget cap and the team was punished by reducing the time in the wind tunnel by ten percent, but there was little evidence of that in Bahrain. Red Bull dominated the weekend and team boss Christian Horner says that the aerodynamic punishment his team received was partly compensated by the fact that his team was extra motivated.
What we lost in wind tunnel time, we gained in motivation, Horner told Motorsport.com.
But Horner also realizes that a swallow doesn’t make a spring and he realizes that the impact of the punishment will probably only become clear over a period of a year.
You have to look at something like this over a 12-month period because it’s not just about this year’s car, but next year’s as well.
I think the most positive thing now is that we don’t have fundamental problems that consume our time and staff.
It was vital for us to deal with this penalty as best as possible and to have a good basis. The team has done a very good job in that area.
We now have another eight to nine months to go. That means we have to be very selective and efficient in the development of this year’s car and, of course, next year’s.
Horner is convinced that his team will hold on despite the penalty, but he also reckons that even the slightest change in the regulations could throw a spanner in the works.
It really depends on whether anything changes in the regulations, Horner continues. We expect it to remain stable on that front, but of course it remains a handicap. You have an undeniable disadvantage as the leader in the championship and on top of that there is another ten percent.
So we have fifteen percent less than Ferrari and twenty percent less than Mercedes, which is a significant number.
So for us, the message is to be efficient and effective with what we’re doing in the wind tunnel to develop the RB19 and the RB20.