According to renowned motorsport driver Robert Doornbos, Red Bull is currently testing the 2024 floor on Max Verstappen‘s car in Mexico. This comes right after the Austrian team won everything from the Constructors’ championship to the driver’s championship with Verstappen leading the charge.
Doornbos, as per F1 Maximal, believes that the energy drink-based team is in a luxurious position to test the floor for the upcoming season. This is because they already have both titles in the bag. That’s why Sergio Perez is not a part of this. The Mexican driver is still struggling to hold on to his P2 spot in the championship standings.
Constructors Champions of the world!!! 🏆
What an unbelievable season we’re having 🙌 I couldn’t be more proud to be part of this @redbullracing 🙌 Everyone working on the track and back in the factory, thank you so much. What a rocket ship 🚀
It’s amazing to achieve this… pic.twitter.com/c1MHnjukCr
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) September 24, 2023
Red Bull is doing this in order to stay ahead of the grid. While other teams scramble to get their 2023 goals met, Horner wants Red Bull to take the opportunity and focus on the future.
Given how McLaren improved themselves from scratch this season and how Mercedes and Ferrari are getting better, Red Bull does not want to take any risks in 2024.
Red Bull playing safe to keep their dominance intact
Red Bull has been more dominant than ever this season. The Austrian team has won every race so far, except for the Singapore GP. This means they have 17 race wins in 18 races so far, with Verstappen taking 15 and Perez winning the rest.
Furthermore, they also won 15 races, back to back, which was a new record. They were so strong, that they wrapped their season up in Japan. As for Verstappen, he won the title in Qatar with five races to go.
That’s it for FP3. Two top 3 finishes for the Bulls 👏#F1 #RedBullRacing #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/FEnfcU9Iqt
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 28, 2023
Notably, Newey and Co. have also been cautious about their moves after they were slapped with the FIA fine for breaching the 2021 Budget cap. Due to this, they were handicapped to some extent in terms of wind tunnel development. This acted as a disadvantage against their rivals.
Horner further believes that the impact of this year’s punishment would be visible next year. The FIA slapped a monetary fine of seven million dollars and a ten per cent reduction in wind tunnel testing time.
