After winning the double title in 2022, Red Bull returned to Bahrain with a winning project. A project which at the moment has brought three victories and two doubles in the first three races of the season, and which seems to be able to dominate for the entire season. All this in the year of the fateful sanction for having breached the Budget Cap in 2021, in the first year of application. Sanction which – despite the reduction in hours in the wind tunnel – on paper does not appear to have affected the RB19 project in the slightest, which remains the fastest and most efficient car on the track, also due to the regression of the other top teams, in particular Ferrari. However, the Maranello team has returned to the attack on the matter through its team principal, Frédéric Vasseur.
Vasseur's attack
The penalty, accuse Vasseur, it was too light, so much so that it cannot affect performance and development. The Milton Keynes-based team have been fined just over £6m, resulting in a 10% reduction in time spent in the wind tunnel.
"In my opinion, the penalty is very slight. If you consider that we will improve over the season, in terms of aerodynamics, by less than 1 second, it's a 10% penalty, so it counts for 1 tenth. Furthermore, since the improvement is not a linear progression, it will probably have an even lesser effect. Without considering that spending that money elsewhere is allowed: for me it is an absolutely marginal penalty.”
At Red Bull, however, he also recognizes the merit of having brought a winning and extremely efficient project to the track, above all thanks to the DRS, a strong point also in the past season. Merits that have nothing to do with the lightness of the penalty, nor with the current state of Ferrari, still dissatisfied with the performance. "Red Bull has done a good job ma I remain convinced that it was a very mild penalty. I'm not looking for excuses at all, but if you ask me if the penalty is too light, I say yes. They have a massive DRS effect, bigger than anyone else and we need to understand how they managed to get it. We still have to improve."
Horner's response
Christian's answer Horner it was not long in coming. During a recent interview with the microphones of Sky Sport F1 Uk, the Red Bull Team Principal limited himself to defending his own thoughts, which, like Vasseur's, have a rather relative weight. “Vasseur's comments? Everyone has their own opinion, we can all have one."
Although Horner praised the work of Newey and his followers, judged Vasseur's comment too "premature". We are only at the third race of the season. Everything is still open, and according to Horner, the time has not yet come to draw conclusions. "The team worked well in the winter, also a virtue of the limited time to develop the car. This will obviously have an impact over the course of the current season and next. I think it is premature to evaluate the season only with the result of only three races. There are still many GPs to go".
The next races will be essential and Red Bull knows that in such a long season one must never let one's guard down. With a view to both Ferrari and Mercedes, they will bring great news to Europe. And it is possible, given the first effects of the sanction imposed on Red Bull, that someone this year is going a little more on that front.
Statement source: Autosprint, Formula1.it
