Red Bull has reportedly invested $81.8 million in their new wind tunnel. This may give the defending champions an edge with its cutting-edge technology. However, the new wind tunnel would need at least a few years to complete and as per reports, it will not be completed before 2027.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stated about this, in a report published by SpeedCafe, “With wind tunnels being a thing of the future, by all accounts, we’ve had to go with the times and invest in a new wind tunnel on which construction will start during 2024.”
Please welcome! Red Bull Ford Powertrains
pic.twitter.com/g0BrMtJQ16— The Grid Indonesia (@TheGrid_ID) March 30, 2023
When asked when the wind tunnel would be operational, Horner added, “Probably for the ’27. You don’t want to introduce it in-season, you have to nominate a tunnel for the year, so it’ll probably be to do the ’27 car in.” Admittedly, Red Bull commissioned a new wind tunnel due to a change in location for its development.
Furthermore, Horner revealed that the current wind tunnel they use in Bedford is quite old and not quite “efficient.” Therefore, the need to bring up a new wind tunnel is the order of the hour.
However, they will have a delay and the delay is due to the planning permission they are ready to acquire for the new wind tunnel.
Red Bull is already working on their Powertrains
In recent years, Red Bull Racing has invested heavily in its Powertrains division. In doing so, they acquired talents from rival teams and therefore, it was a huge economic and strategic decision for the team.
Moreover, the CFD, or Computational Fluid Dynamics, and researching on it is also a huge expensive business to pull off. However, Horner revealed that the team is ready to have all the support it needs despite the saddened death of Dietrich Mateschitz.
One last time in 2023… Max, Checo, Christian and the whole Team on Campus in Milton Keynes pic.twitter.com/C3xfrzgMGG
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) December 13, 2023
On this, the Red Bull boss said, “Since Dietrich’s passing, the commitment of the shareholders, the Thai shareholders, and the Mateschitz family, in Dietrich’s son, we’ve acquired more buildings this year than in any year in our history.”
Notably, the Red Bull powertrains division came into existence after Honda hesitated to continue the post-2021 F1 season. This enabled the Austrian team to get on board to build the engines all by themselves despite being a non-automotive company.
