Marko: Red Bull’s reduced F1 aero testing an ‘enormous disadvantage’

Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko says the team has been issued an “enormous competitive disadvantage” after the FIA confirmed its penalty for breaching the cost cap on Friday.

The energy drink-backed squad has been forced to pay a fine of $7 million, while it will also have a 10 per cent reduction in aerodynamic development time in 2023.

Team Principal Christian Horner described the punishment as “draconian” on Friday.

However other parties, namely Mercedes and McLaren, have suggested that the penalty is not enough to justify Red Bull’s breach.

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Speaking to Sky Deutschland, Marko still believes that Red Bull will still be able to be competitive despite the restricted wind tunnel hours.

“The penalty is tough. But it’s just about the limit where we believe we can be competitive in the years to come despite the restrictions in the hours dedicated to wind tunnel.”

However, he still asserted that the punishment will put Red Bull on the back foot.

“It’s an enormous competitive disadvantage,” Marko commented.  “Our wind tunnel is one of the first to be built.

“In terms of the turnaround time and the sensitivity to heat, we need even longer before we can find the right one temperature as it’s not state of the art.

“We can’t miss a shot. What we take into the wind tunnel has to work. We can’t afford to make any mistakes.” 

Horner mirrored Marko’s comments, stating that Red Bull will be careful with how it chooses to upgrade its car going forward.

“Fundamentally it means we are going to have less runs in a simulation tools, primarily the wind tunnel,” Horner said.

“That means that the funnel of ideas that you can apply to the development of your car is going to be much more restricted.

“We are going to have to pick and choose what we want to test and what we want to run in the limited wind tunnel time that we have.”