F1 News: Red Bull Cost Cap Penalty No Issue - "We Are Relaxed"

Despite facing a cost cap punishment that limits their wind tunnel usage, Red Bull's F1 team maintains dominance in the circuit, with Helmut Marko confident of their performance.

As we reflect on the Spanish Grand Prix and the dominance that Red Bull showed during the race, I start to wonder how long it will be until the RB19 is matched by something else on the grid. With the Austrian team's cost cap punishment that's reduced their wind tunnel usage, we must see some sort of ceiling to the car's potency soon, right? Team advisor Helmut Marko doesn't believe so, and this could certainly cause some rumbling in the world of F1. 

Red Bull, after winning the 2023 championship and after their cost cap punishment, only has 63% of the allotted time in the wind tunnel compared to the likes of Aston Martin. Because of this, we're expecting Red Bull to not undergo as much development as other teams this year. But Marko is adamant that thanks to forward planning, this won't be noticeable. 

"We are relaxed about it," he told Sky Sports F1. "What is still in the pipeline has been planned for a long time. We are two or three tenths ahead and that is quite a lot."

While Mercedes showed promise with a new package at the Spanish GP, where Lewis Hamilton and George Russell outpaced Ferrari and Aston Martin, Red Bull remains unreachable. 

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"They set very good lap times," the he continued. "We didn't go well on the hard tyre, but I always only look at our own cars. As long as we are still relatively good at the front, we are calm."

Max Verstappen finished a whole 24 seconds ahead of P2 yesterday, only emphasising the sheer pace the RB19 and its drivers currently have. But now we wait to see if it's a case of Red Bull being caught later this season, or next year. I have a feeling it's the latter.