'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has expressed concern about the significantly reduced development time available as a factor that works against the team.
In the new era of F1, the time available to develop the car is inversely proportional to the team's championship standings. The Milton Keynes-based squad has been leading the championship standings since last season.
As a result, Red Bull will have the least development time available as compared to its competitors. Not only that, the team has also incurred the cost cap penalty for breaching the cost cap in 2021. As a result, there is a further 10% reduction in development time for the team.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has especially raised concern about the disparity in development time available to his team and McLaren, the team that was ranked sixth in the championship when the development times for the second half of the season were frozen.
With the Woking-based squad proving to be the closest challenger to Horner's team, he admitted that the limitation of development time was a huge concern. As quoted by PlanetF1, Horner said,
“We have that penalty until October this year. So, particularly in terms of the number of runs that you can do per week, we’re significantly down compared to second and third place and massively down to teams in fourth and fifth. If you compare to McLaren and the amount of runs they can do in a wind tunnel versus ourselves, it’s a huge, huge difference."
He added,
“So we have to be very, very selective in the running that we’re doing. That’s where the engineering team back in Milton Keynes are doing an incredible job in the way that they’re effectively and efficiently developing the car.”
Red Bull boss on the handicap of reduced development time
Talking about the reduced development time, the Red Bull boss admitted that the team needed to switch focus entirely to 2024 and will only have a few circuit-specific upgrades for the rest of the season.
Horner said (via PlanetF1),
“They did what they said on the tin. From that point of view, it’s sort of box ticked. With the handicap that we have, we have to really swing our focus over to next year, because we have a significant deficit on wind tunnel time compared to our competitors."
"We have to be very selective about how we use it. We will have a few circuit-specific things but nothing that hasn’t been done already, or already committed through the research and development.”
Red Bull have won all the races this season and are on a 12-race unbeaten streak. The team will be hoping to extend it at the next race, the 2023 F1 Belgian GP.
