Horner: Red Bull Racing wind tunnel a relic of the Cold War

The defending Formula 1 champions have been struggling for a while now as they have come under the attack of McLaren, who have passed them in the constructors' championship, while Lando Norris is putting Max Verstappen under pressure in the drivers' standings.

Red Bull have lost the plot with the development of their RB20 that started the 2024 F1 season as the car to beat, since an upgrade for the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola back in May failed to deliver the expected improvements.

And while the current Bedford-based wind tunnel Red Bull are using has been good enough to deliver seven title-winning F1 cars (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2021, 2022, and 2023), it seems that it has failed them as matters got more serious with the current cars as they tried to push the envelope to maintain the advantage they have enjoyed since 2022.

Red Bull are in the process of building a new wind tunnel at their Milton Keynes base, but it will not be ready before 2026, so now they have to make do with their old one.

"We've always known the limitations of the tunnel," Horner said, quoted by Motorsport.com. "But I think as we've really started to push the aerodynamics of these cars now and you're into really fine margins, then the limitations show themselves up."

And while many expect a team like Red Bull to have seen this problem coming and commissioned their new wind tunnel earlier, that decision was delayed until it was clear the practice of wind tunnels would not be banned in favor of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as the FIA was looking at cost-cutting practices.

"There was a point in time that wind tunnels could have been banned," Horner pointed out. "There was a discussion about whether that was going to be the case, and whether CFD would overtake it or not.

"Adrian [Newey] held off pushing for a new tunnel until there was clarity on that. But it got to a point where Aston Martin wanted a new tunnel, and the FIA changed their stance.

"So it was a question of: 'Look, we have to do this, and we have to do this now, because the regulations dictate that, within a cost cap, the tunnel that we're running is grossly inefficient.'

"We've got a facility that is a 60-year-old wind tunnel. It is a relic of the Cold War," Horner added when asked to point out difficulties with Red Bull's current wind tunnel.

“It's been good enough to produce some fantastic cars for us over the years. But it has its limitations. So anything under five degrees [centigrade], we can't run it.

"Anything over 25 degrees, it becomes pretty unstable," the Red Bull boss concluded.