F1 News
Wolff: It will 'not be easy' to overtake Red Bull despite penalty
Toto Wolff thinks it will be difficult to overtake Red Bull Racing in 2023. The team is obliged to spend less time in the wind tunnel in the coming months following the budget cap penalty. How hard the team will actually be hit by the penalty is unclear.
On Friday, the FIA finally announced the punishment Red Bull Racing will receive for exceeding its budget cap. The team must pay a fine of seven million dollars and will be hit by a ten per cent reduction in wind tunnel time over the next 12 months.
It remains to be seen how badly Max Verstappen's team will be hit by this penalty. As world champions, the team will only get seventy per cent aerodynamic testing time in 2023 anyway, but the reduction brings it down to 63 per cent.
Wolff knows it will still be a tough task to catch up with the top team next season. Mercedes started the 2022 season well behind. The team still has no victory to its name this year. Despite the reduction in wind tunnel time, the team boss expects Red Bull to still be strong.
Wolff: 'Won't be easy to overtake Red Bull'
"They have a top car and a good driver. You have to catch up first and that is not easy," he explains to Sky Germany. Yet the penalty will also work to Red Bull's disadvantage, Wolff says. The Austrian expects the field to come closer together in the coming years because of the new aerodynamic rules.
"That was also the reason for the rule, so that in three or four years' time there will be five or six teams competing for one victory." For now, we are a long way from such a situation. Red Bull won the title in dominant fashion this season.
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