01/06/2021
NEWS STORY
Other than precious fractions of a second, Red Bull boss, Christian Horner admits that meeting the FIA's new wing deflection test will hit his team in the pocket.
Whether Mercedes carries out its threat and protests the rear wing on the RBR16B this weekend remains to be seen, but nonetheless, for the following race - the French Grand Prix - Red Bull, along with Ferrari, Alpine and Alfa Romeo must ensure that their rear wings meet the new deflection test.
While attention is focussed on the speed advantage the current wing might give the likes of Red Bull, the Monaco winners admit that other than losing out in terms of lap times they will also be hit financially. Indeed, according to Christian Horner, ensuring the wing meets the new demand could cost the Austrian outfit up to half a million dollars.
At the same time however, with an eye on the budget cap, this could, in turn, compromise the team's development programme as it battles Mercedes for the titles.
Only last week the German team pulled out of a two-day (wet) tyre test at Paul Ricard citing the costs involved, the Black Arrows, similarly mindful of a costly development programme as it battles Red Bull, having already had to absorb the cost of Valtteri Bottas' expensive clash with George Russell at Imola.
Asked about the performance advantage of a bendy wing, Horner admits: "It's difficult to quantify but it's not as much as people think.
"I've heard comments of six tenths being bandied around which is ludicrous," he continues. "I mean if you're talking about a tenth, I'd be surprised.
"All these things have to work in conjunction with every other component on the car, so that's going to vary from circuit to circuit.
"The car is designed to comply with the regulations and of course there are tests that the FIA have for most of it and our car complies with all of those tests," explains the Briton in terms of why changes would need to be made in the first place. "Now, occasionally the FIA will change those tests, which they have the right to do.
"They've done that and that of course means that effectively it's a change in regulations in many respects so of course there have to be changes made to the product and that's expensive and of course time-consuming.
"But a lot of focus is on the rear of the car at the moment and I'm sure that in due time that's also going to move round to other areas of the car that other teams will come under scrutiny, so of course it's not just Ferrari and Red Bull that are affected. I think Sauber are quite badly affected by this as well, but that's Formula 1, that's what happens when Technical Directives get issued that change things like the tests that rear wings are subjected to."
Asked about the timing of the technical directive, and the need to resolve the issue before the French Grand Prix - Mercedes objection that the test should have been in place by this weekend - Horner explains: "When you're effectively changing a rule, there has to be a lead time. You can't just magic up components.
"I think if they changed the test on the front wings, for example, this weekend and we've seen far more performance from front wing flexibility, shall we say, then that would affect every single team, some much greater than others and I think that there has to be a lead time. You can't expect parts just to magicked up overnight with the costs that are incurred with that.
"The car complies with the regulations that have been there for the last 18 months or so with these load tests and then the test or the regulation has been changed or the test has been changed and there has to be a notice period for that."
Asked how this 'unforeseen spend' might affect Red Bull's budget, Horner admits: "For a team like us that is obviously running up against the cap, then of course strategically you have to make choices.
"The impact of something like this is probably about half a million dollars so you've got to... that will prevent something else from happening, so that's the juggling act that we're now having to make with the budget cap and financial regs."