Mercedes: Red Bull’s wind tunnel penalty will have an impact
Red Bull's wind tunnel time has been reduced by 10% as a result of its budgetary breach. A significant penalty for one of the leading teams. Mercedes, who will receive almost 27% more wind tunnel time next year, believes this will help them catch up with the Austrian team.
The FIA has introduced a budget cap in Formula 1 in order to regulate costs and reduce the gaps between different teams. However, a few weeks ago, we learned that Red Bull had exceeded the 2021 limit. This infringement has been strongly criticized by all the teams fighting for fairness. The Austrian team is not the only one to have spent beyond the limit set by the FIA, as Aston Martin has also exceeded the budget cap for the 2021 season. However, the Austrian team is the only one to receive a penalty on their wind tunnel time for 2023.
A significant advantage over Red Bull and Ferrari.
The new system that allocates wind tunnel time for each team per season now works based on the constructors’ world championship standings. Thus, thanks to this distribution aimed at reducing the gaps, Mercedes will have 25% more wind tunnel time compared to Red Bull in 2023. According to Toto Wolff, this difference can allow the teams trailing behind to get closer to the front positions.
The way in which the regulations and restrictions on wind tunnel and CFD testing have been implemented means that there are teams further back who can really make a big leap compared to the frontrunners.
This distribution of time in the wind tunnel can allow teams at the bottom of the rankings to make significant progress.
« This is also the reason why we will see much tighter championships in the future because if you finish last, you get 40% more.
»
Mercedes has long suffered from the porpoising issues of the W13 at the start of the season, but the German team managed to catch up with Ferrari in the second half of the championship. This is an important factor as thanks to their 3rd position in the constructor’s standings, the German manufacturer will benefit from 7% more wind tunnel testing compared to Ferrari next year.
« They (Red Bull) are a brilliant racing team. This will give them an additional motivation and against Ferrari, it’s a 7% difference. But it’s all about marginal gains and we have been a little closer to Ferrari in the last quarter of the season. »
“Toto Wolff declares.”
A return to the top?
The latest races of the 2022 World Championship saw the return to the forefront of the silver arrows. They notably dominated the Brazilian Grand Prix by winning both the sprint race and the main race on Sunday. Toto Wolff hopes that the progress made by the team in recent months will allow them to fight for the title in 2023.
I am a guy who sees the glass half empty and I never believe that the work we do is enough. I don’t know at all if we can bounce back to a position where we are fighting for championships because it must be acknowledged that the competition is strong.
