F1 News: Christian Horner Reveals True Impact Of Red Bull Cost Cap Penalty
Red Bull team chief Christian Horner has spoken about the true impact of the teams cost-cap penalty which they were given last year.
It was revealed during 2022 that the Austrian team had exceeded the cost cap budget for the 2021 season. As a penalty, the team were given a $7 million fine and a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time for the upcoming 2023 season.
During an interview with RACER, Horner revealed how the team is doing with the reduction of wind tunnel time. He explained:
“We’re probably 25% almost of the way through that penalty, and of course it has an effect. It’s limiting significantly, the amount of runs that we can do in our wind tunnel over each quarter. And I think that the team are they’re having to adapt to that.
“And it just means you have to be a bit more focused, and more disciplined in what we put through the testing process within the tunnel or within our simulation tools.”
Despite the difficulties, Horner is adamant the team will still be able to have strong performance in 2023. He continued:
“So it’s another challenge. And it’s a handicap for sure, coming into this year, but we’ve got very capable people that are looking to obviously extract the best that we possibly can and apply ourselves in the most efficient and effective way.”
Horner also revealed that the obstacles have given the team an opportunity to become more resourceful. He added:
“I think the principle of it is great and it’s driven efficiency. If I look at the business now, compared to where it was four or five years ago, we’d have ended up with a lot of stock of spare parts that were brand new that had never been used, and then they’re just scrap. And so now you just can’t afford to have that. You’ve got to be so effective and efficient.
“So I think from that point of view, it has driven great efficiency into the business. It’s got rid of that wastage that was there that nobody saw previously.”