Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed the team will prioritise “evolution” with its 2025 Formula 1 car as committing to wholesale change wouldn’t “make sense”.
Each team on the grid is expected to avoid revamping their car concepts over the winter as attention next season will soon turn to the overhauled regulations in 2026.
However, Red Bull’s drop in competitiveness this term has placed added importance on the tweaks it plans to make going into the last season under the current rules.
The Austrian squad’s dominant start has unravelled since it encountered balance issues with the RB20 which has allowed McLaren to attain the lead in the standings.
But although it will strive to eradicate McLaren’s advantage, Horner has denied that Red Bull could look to introduce radical solutions to obtain an edge with the RB21.
The long-serving Red Bull Team Principal has pinpointed the impending reset and the existing cost cap as two leading aspects behind the choice that has been taken.
“In this business, you’re always juggling and you’ve got to put one foot in front of the other,” Horner told Autosport.
“You can’t project too far into the future. Long term in F1 is about two and a half months and, basically, what we learn this year is relevant to next year.
“So next year’s car will be an evolution of this year’s car. I mean, there’s many components of last year’s car that have been carried over into this year, because with the way the cost cap works, unless there’s significant performance upgrade, it doesn’t make sense [to change].”
Red Bull’s 2026 engine venture
Red Bull will go into the unknown more than most in F1’s next era as it partners with American automotive giant Ford to run an engine that’s been developed in-house.
Horner has conceded that the venture will present inevitable obstacles at the outset, but he is confident that Red Bull’s Powertrains division will serve to be a net gain.
“It is by far our biggest challenge,” he added. “We’ve created a start-up business, aggressively recruited 600 people into it, built a factory, put in the process and brought a group of people together to work within a Red Bull culture that has been so successful on the chassis side.
“Of course, many have come from other teams, competitors and suppliers in F1, and that’s a massive undertaking to get 600 people and all your processes, your supply chain, everything geared up to deliver for two teams in ’26.
“We also have the benefit of a great partner in Ford Motor Company and that relationship is working very well.
“But inevitably there will be short-term pain, but there is a long-term gain of having everything under one roof with engineers.
“We’ve already seen the benefit and the difference of having chassis and engine engineers sitting essentially next to each other as we start to integrate the ‘26 engine into the ‘26 car.”
Wind tunnel limitations
Red Bull’s current balance woes have exposed glaring issues with the team’s correlation tools, which Horner has attributed to operating with an outdated wind tunnel.
The reigning champions have authorised a new state-of-the-art building to match its rivals, but the base of its 2026 car will be tested using its current Bedford facility.
“We’ve always known the limitations of the tunnel,” he acknowledged.
“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.”
Asked about the challenges Red Bull has endured with the wind tunnel it has used since 2005, Horner replied: “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.”
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