The FIA and Formula 1 intend for teams to work solely on the basis of their CFD models from 2030 and thus ban the expensive wind tunnels currently used for most testing.
However, the question remains how realistic that thinking is, something that has caused some teams to continue to spend a lot of money on their wind tunnels. For example, Aston Martin and McLaren are well advanced in this process and Red Bull seems to have similar intentions.
The energy drinks team is already working on plans to build a new wind tunnel at its Milton Keynes factory. Red Bull ‘s goal is to bring all its facilities together in one place: the offices, the factory, the wind tunnel, the Red Bull Powertrains department, etc.
Although this year they have focused on the new installations for the power units, the new wind tunnel should be ready in about two years, that is, in 2024. “We are currently in the phase of obtaining the permits for everything”, Helmut Marko explained to AMuS . Some statements that a little later were confirmed to Motorsport.com.
Considering Formula 1’s intention to ban wind tunnels, it seems that Red Bull ‘s idea is quite an expensive joke if it can ultimately only take advantage of it for six seasons. However, the matter is a bit more confusing. Due to current regulations, the wind tunnel has become even more important than before.
Due to the new budget cap and testing restrictions on circuits, cost cuts have meant that teams can no longer do the typical trial and error with the new parts, as they have no room to maneuver financially speaking, which means that now the simulations are worth gold, literally and figuratively.
In addition, the time that the teams spend in the wind tunnel is limited by a system that seeks to equalize the grid, the best teams get less time than the teams that finish in the lower part of the grid, so they must take advantage of what they have the maximum.
Currently, the wind tunnel used by Red Bull offers good results, but it has some limitations. “It takes us too long to get to the wind speed we want,” Newey explained. “And that costs us a significant part of the wind tunnel time that we are actually entitled to by regulation.”
With the new plans from the Austrian structure, that process should be much quicker, thus allowing Red Bull to do more testing during the time they are allotted to use the wind tunnel. Although they could only take advantage of it until 2030, from the team they believe that investing a large number of millions in it is a correct decision.
