Christian Horner confirms Red Bull switching development focus to 2024 car as Toto Wolff says Mercedes ‘need a lot of changes’

Christian Horner says Red Bull’s focus is turning to their 2024 car, with only ‘circuit-specific’ updates to be added to this year’s RB19 now

Christian Horner says Red Bull are now focusing on their 2024 F1 car to ensure they do not fall back next year due to the “significant deficit” they have in wind tunnel time compared to rivals.

The runaway championship leaders set a new F1 win streak record in Sunday’s Hungarian GP by claiming a 12th in a row, dating back to last year’s Abu Dhabi GP.

The RB19 is unbeaten in 2023 and featured a substantial upgrade at the Hungaroring with a revised sidepod and floor design.

But team principal Horner revealed that is likely to be the last major update to the car as Red Bull switch resources to the 2024 RB20.

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Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz takes a closer look at the new Red Bull upgrades for the Hungarian GP

Under F1’s sliding scale for aerodynamic testing, as championship leaders Red Bull are handicapped to just 70 per cent of the default allowance – amounting to 28 wind tunnel runs per week. The team have a further reduction to 25 wind tunnel runs until October due to their penalty for breaching the 2021 cost cap.

Explaining Red Bull’s development plan, Horner told Sky Sports F1: “I think there’s circuit-specific bits and pieces because we race at Monza, and other circuits like Singapore, they’re all circuit specific.

“With the limitation with the wind tunnel time that we have, we have to make our choices and so of course we’re having to put a lot of focus into next year now to make sure that we don’t fall behind.

“Because the others, you can see McLaren have made a big step, we’re expecting others to do likewise later in the year, particularly with the extra time they have available to them.”

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Highlights of the Hungarian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen delivered Red Bull a record 12th consecutive win

Since introducing a major upgrade package in Austria, McLaren have found around a second improvement in performance and have been Red Bull’s closest challengers at Silverstone and Hungary with Lando Norris finishing second to Max Verstappen at both venues.

The Woking-based team’s poor start to the 2023 season means they were sixth in the Constructors’ Championship at the cut-off point to set the aerodynamic testing allocation for the remainder of the year.

McLaren therefore get 95 per cent of the available time – 38 wind tunnel runs per week. Of the other front runners, Mercedes get 30 runs per week, Aston Martin 32 and Ferrari 34.

“With a handicap that we have, we have to really swing our focus over to next year because we have a significant deficit in wind tunnel time compared to our competitors and we have to be very selective in how we use them,” Horner expanded.

“We’ll have a few circuit-specific things but nothing that hasn’t been done already or committed through the research and development.

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Christian Horner says it was ‘incredible’ to win 12 races in a row and says it is a joy to work with Max Verstappen, ‘a sportsman at the top of his game’

“We have that penalty until October this year, so particularly in terms of the amount of runs that you can do per week, we’re significantly down compared to second and third place, and we are massively down once you get back to teams that are fourth or fifth.

“And if you compare McLaren’s amount of runs they can do in a wind tunnel versus ourselves, it’s a huge, huge difference.

“So, of course, we have to be very, very selective in the running that we’re doing and that’s where the engineering team back in Milton Keynes are doing an incredible job, the way that they’re effectively and efficiently developing the car.”

Wolff: Mercedes need a lot of changes | ‘We see opportunities’

Toto Wolff has reiterated Mercedes will be overhauling their car design for 2024 as they seek to return to challenging Red Bull for the world championship.

Lewis Hamilton claimed a stunning but surprise pole position in Hungary – only Mercedes’ second in this current era of F1 – but could only manage fourth in the race, while team-mate George Russell recovered from starting 18th to finish sixth.

Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after the race: “We generally have a bigger wing than the Red Bulls but they seem to have more downforce from their floor.

“We have a lot of work to do. I’m like a broken record and have to keep telling the guys ‘we need to go in that direction’ so I would love to see that either this year or at least on next year’s car.”

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After his poor start to the race, Lewis Hamilton says he just couldn’t keep up with the McLarens, while George Russell felt finishing sixth was beyond his expectations

Mercedes have already ditched their ‘no-sidepod’ concept this season, and team boss Wolff says the team are considering all options as they seek more consistent and predictable performance next year.

“I think we need a lot of changes for 2024. The direction our team is developing is really quite interesting,” he said.

“We see opportunities and we’re not shying away of leaving no stone unturned, looking at every single concept.

“Like every single concept that we have seen on other cars – whether that is powerful or not – [we are looking] whether this is of any use to us without letting ourselves be distracted from the way we operate, the way we analyse…going to come out good.”

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Ted Kravitz is in the paddock as he reviews all the biggest stories from the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix

Wolff said at the British GP that Mercedes would be switching focus to their 2024 car “imminently”, but he is not giving up on catching Red Bull this year.

“I wouldn’t want to give up any season,” he said in Hungary. “You can see how McLaren has leapfrogged everybody else with an update that didn’t expect to come in that powerful. Whatever it was, they gained a second probably and leapfrogged Aston Martin, Ferrari who have been really strong contenders at the beginning of the season and now they’re nowhere.

“We’ve just need to continue working and chipping away at our understanding and unlocking the potential in the car as Aston Martin did over the winter or McLaren during the season. We won’t give up.”

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Enjoy our pick of the funniest moments from the Hungarian Grand Prix including Nico Hulkenberg’s new haircut, an ice-cream debate and Lando Norris’ champagne shenanigans!

Sky Sports F1’s live Belgian GP schedule

Thursday July 27
2pm: Drivers’ Press Conference

Friday July 28
8.55am: Formula 3 Practice
10am: Formula 2 Practice
12pm: Belgian GP Practice One (session starts 12.30pm)
1.55pm: Formula 3 Qualifying
2.50pm: Formula 2 Qualifying
3.35pm: Belgian GP Qualifying build-up
4pm: Belgian GP Qualifying
6pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Saturday July 29
8.55am: Formula 3 Sprint Race
10.30am: Belgian GP Sprint Shootout build-up
11am: Belgian GP Sprint Shootout
12.40pm: Formula 2 Sprint Race
2.30pm: Belgian GP Sprint build-up
3.30pm: BELGIAN GP SPRINT
5pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook

Sunday July 30
7.25am: Formula 3 Feature Race
8.55am: Formula 2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday – Belgian GP build-up
2pm: THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag – Belgian GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook

Next up is the Belgian GP, the final race before F1’s summer break – watch all sessions of the Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from July 28-30. Stream the Belgian GP and more with NOW.