F1 News: Christian Horner Questions 2023 Regulation Change That "Probably Wasn't Needed"

The Red Bull team chief claims the regulation change was unnecessary and costly.

Red Bull Racing's team principal, Christian Horner, has voiced his concerns about the cost associated with the latest regulation change for Formula 1's 2023 season. The change, aimed at addressing the porpoising phenomenon that plagued several teams last year, requires teams to raise the edges of their car's floor by 15mm.

However, Horner questions the necessity of this regulation change, as the porpoising issue was largely resolved by the end of the 2022 season. In fact, Horner believes that the tweak might be an overreaction and a costly one at that.

The FIA stepped in and issued a technical directive during the 2022 season, when there was a controversy surrounding the use of flexible floors by certain teams, including Red Bull and Ferrari. The directive was aimed at maintaining the integrity of the rules and preventing teams from taking advantage of loopholes.

The Red Bull team chief argued that it was unjust for the FIA to change the rules mid-season, particularly since teams, like Mercedes, that were struggling with the porpoising issue had not had a chance to address the problem. He believes that the teams should have been given more time to rectify the issue before the FIA stepped in.

Horner explained to Auto Motor und Sport:

“I think we have to wait and see, the first snapshot will be the testing in Bahrain.

“It’s a little bit strange, because obviously there was a big push to get all of this changed, and the changes came through around Spa last year.

“But by the end of the year, there was very little porpoising.”

Horner continued: 

“My argument at the time was will it not just get sorted out, which it did.

“So we’ve gone through quite a lot of expense, for all the teams in a big regulation change that probably wasn’t needed.”

FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis claims the regulation changes were still needed. He explained:

“I’ve got no doubt we did the right thing. We tried to find a pragmatic, short-term solution and a medium-term solution.

“It won’t necessarily dissipate [porpoising] completely, but it will be a step less.”