Christian Horner Reveals Red Bull Limitations - 'Grossly Inefficient'

Saajan Jogia | Oct 13, 2024

Christian Horner, Team Principal of Oracle Red Bull Racing, speaks at the Red Bull Fan Zone, a private event at Oracle headquarters, on Wednesday October 18, 2023. / Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has highlighted that his team faces major challenges with its '60-year-old' Cold War-era wind tunnel based in Bedford with Formula 1 cars getting more aerodynamically advanced. The revelation comes in the wake of the balance problems Red Bull faces on its RB20 F1 car.

The 2024 season marks a sharp contrast for Red Bull compared to its dominant performance during the 2022 and 2023 seasons in the ground effect era. The key factor behind this shift lies in the car's aerodynamics, which became unsettled following the Miami Grand Prix. Red Bull attributes the issue to a balance problem, where even minor setup adjustments make the RB20 overly sensitive to changes between sessions throughout a race weekend.

While the issue initially appeared more pronounced on Sergio Perez's car after the Chinese Grand Prix, it became evident that Max Verstappen was also grappling with it when McLaren's Lando Norris claimed victory at the Dutch GP, finishing a full 20 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

While Horner revealed that the team had identified the root cause of the problem that caused McLaren to overtake Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship, he pointed out that the team's old wind tunnel used to develop its cars is now too old to cope with the level of aerodynamics on modern F1 cars. While Red Bull's new state-of-the-art wind tunnel is a work-in-progress project, it won't be until 2027 when the team can utilize it completely. Speaking to Autosport in an interview, he said:

“We've always known the limitations of the tunnel.

"But I think as we've really started to push the aerodynamics of these cars now and you're into really fine margins, then the limitations show themselves up.”

Horner then recalled when wind tunnels were about to be banned until Aston Martin stepped in. He added:

“There was a point in time that wind tunnels could have been banned.

“There was a discussion about whether that was going to be the case, and whether CFD would overtake it or not.

“Adrian [Newey] held off pushing for a new tunnel until there was clarity on that. But it got to a point where Aston Martin wanted a new tunnel and the FIA changed their stance.

“So it was a question of: ‘Look, we have to do this, and we have to do this now, because the regulations dictate that, within a cost cap, the tunnel that we're running is grossly inefficient.'”

Speaking on the problems of the current wind tunnel, the Red Bull team boss said:

“We've got a facility that is a 60-year-old wind tunnel. It is a relic of the Cold War.

“It's been good enough to produce some fantastic cars for us over the years. But it has its limitations.

“So anything under five degrees [centigrade], we can't run it. Anything over 25 degrees, it becomes pretty unstable.”