Adrian Newey knows Oracle Red Bull Racing risk having a much more difficult 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on the back of the aerodynamic testing penalties handed to the team following their breach of the cost cap regulations in 2021.
Red Bull will lose ten per cent of its available wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) time in 2023 for exceeding the budget cap in 2021, and with technical regulations surrounding the floor changing ahead of next season, Newey says it could pose more problems to the team that could affect their on-track performances.
Newey, the Chief Technical Officer of the Milton Keynes-based team, says it will not affect them if they are smart and get everything right, but he feels this is not a realistic dream and ultimately some things will not work as planned, which could have a negative effect on the team.
“There’s no testing, so it’s very difficult to put an answer that will cost us so many tenths of a second per lap,” Newey is quoted as saying by Racer.com. “And the reduction of internal testing means we can therefore evaluate less — less different components, less different ideas…
“If we’re really smart and always put the right things on the model, then it doesn’t make much difference. But that’s not how it works; there are always some parts that you hope will work and don’t and vice versa. So, it’s difficult. It’s a restriction for sure that will affect us.
“I think then there’s a regulation, a small regulation change over the winter, which is lifting of the floor edge by 50 millimeters — which of course sounds tiny but in reality, it’s quite a significant aerodynamic change. So, like all teams we’re working to reduce the deficit from that in addition to the normal development that goes on from year to year.”
Newey acknowledges that Red Bull enjoyed a strong 2022 season, particularly in the second half of the year where they won ten of the final eleven races, but he is expecting a tougher 2023 with challenges likely to come from both Scuderia Ferrari and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
“I think we’ve obviously had a good year, particularly in the second half of the season,” Newey added. “We do have the best car.
“But Ferrari won’t be resting, and they will be kind of sorting out the weak areas where they had a couple of reliability problems, and they made a couple of pit wall mistakes. So, they’ll be right back.
“And then, of course, Mercedes. They were quite a long way off the pace and evolving. It’s the point that we won one of the last races (and Mercedes won) one, so we know they will be right there. So, it’s going to be a tough year for sure.”
