Fallows: 'Wind tunnel time restrictions will hurt Red Bull'

Red Bull Racing recently received a penalty for exceeding the 2021 budget cap. This amounts to a seven million dollar fine and ten per cent less development time in the wind tunnel and computer simulations. Opinions are divided on how hard this will hit the team.

Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali, says in an interview with Sky Sports F1 that the question of whether Red Bull will suffer much from this penalty is something on which opinions are divided among the teams. The debate around this is, in his view, at least relevant to follow for the FIA, as that task does not lie with F1 (the FIA are the 'regulators'). After all, the teams themselves have helped determine with the FIA what these penalties should look like. Therefore, there will be a lot of focus next year on exactly how this penalty will work out for the Austrian team.

'It will probably hurt'

Dan Fallows, technical director at Aston Martin and a former Red Bull employee, also shed light on the issue in a press briefing that included GPblog. He finds it difficult to determine exactly how the penalty will affect Red Bull:

"There are regulation changes for this year but they're not massive. They are clearly in a very strong position going into this year. That kind of restriction with your wind tunnel hours does hurt. I think the restriction will hurt them to some extent. But I think they have a great deal of strength in depth and they have a lot of experience with this rule set. I am fairly confident they will minimise the impact of that penalty.”