Red Bull fears restrictions: "Are definitely going to have a negative effect on our performance"

The Canadian Grand Prix marked the eighth win of the season for Red Bull. For now, the Austrian racing stable managed to win all races with the unbeatable RB19. Pierre Waché, technical director of Red Bull Racing, sees the RB19's greatest strength in aerodynamic efficiency, but fears the limitations in aerodynamic testing time.

When Waché was asked about the Red Bull car's greatest strength, his answer was short but powerful. "The efficiency, I would say," the technical director told Sky Sports. "We can produce a lot of downforce on most tracks without generating a lot of drag. Therein lies mainly our strength." Because of Red Bull's dominance and the apparent ease with which races are won, rumors regularly circulate that the racing stable is still holding something back. None of this is true, however, according to Waché. "To be honest, you just want to make the car as fast as possible. In that, we just give everything."

That this would result in the dominance shown to date, which they didn't quite expect at Red Bull either. "Success is never purely dependent on your own team. We do our best, but if others manage to get more out of it, we don't win. The lead we have this season is greater than expected." Led by Adrian Newey, Red Bull's aerodynamics department keeps delivering top-notch work, which the competition looks at with wide eyes. "The floor is obviously a gem this season, but not our only strength. The entire package is just right. When I look at this year's package, it's mainly an optimization of what we were working on last year, really down to the details.'"

"Punishment will hurt us"

Red Bull's total dominance in 2023 will make many fans question whether the budget limits and wind tunnel restrictions are hitting the team. The penalty for exceeding the budget limit in 2021, a 10 percent testing restriction, combined with the sliding scale, which gives Red Bull the least amount of testing time as the top team, is certainly going to hurt the team according to Waché. "Every restriction has an effect. We have a restriction imposed as a punishment, but also because we are ahead in the championship. Now we have to be a lot more efficient with our testing time. I'm sure our performance will suffer from this later in the year. I'm trying to look for the positives, but it's clear that we are definitely affected by the restrictions."