In 2022, the Technical Regulation will change in Formula 1, but due to budget constraints, the team cannot in parallel to modernize the current machine and developing a new one. Head of Red Bull Racing Christian Horner said that the team would have to take a difficult decision and at some point completely switch to the car of 2022.
Christian Horner: "Last year, we have been modernizing the car longer than the opponents. We decided to go on this path, because they knew that many elements of the car 2020 would be able to use in 2021.
In addition, it was important to exclude problems with the correlation of the data that we had in the past. We overestimated our modeling tools and underestimated the fact that they are still fully replaced by the work on the racetrack. As a result, the team showed its true form only in the second half of the season.
In the course of this season, it is necessary to make a decision when switching to the car of 2022. The situation is complicated by budget constraints that will mostly affect Mercedes, Ferrari and our team. It is necessary to show extreme caution, deciding what to spend money, because we are no longer able to work in parallel over two projects. I wonder which strategies will choose different teams.
In the last race last season, we were ahead of Mercedes, but the question is how much worse than your true level they performed, and how the result was influenced that they had to sacrifice the power for the sake of reliability. Nevertheless, we are still glad that they could get it out. The victory brought us benefits, but I worry that she forced Mercedes to work even more. "
Speaking about team riders, Horner expressed the hope that Sergio Perez will help Red Bull Racing to exacerbate the fight against Mercedes: "Sergio has a huge experience, he knows how to protect the tire. Sergio is a hardy fighter. We hope that with his arrival, the team will become more balanced, as was during Max Ferstappen and Daniel Riccardo. Our task is to provide a serfio competitive car.
We all wanted to make Alex Elbon to retain his place. He had the potential, but lacked stability. He remained our backup pilot, will work on the simulator and help with tire testing. Alex agreed to this work and will try to make a maximum possible.
For us, it was Sergio Perez in the pilot market. At the same time, we did not have the need for a rush to make a decision, so we spent the season and analyzed the situation with the pilots. We decided that the best solution is to combine Sergio in the same team with Max.
We understand that Alex had to be hard. For the last two seasons, we had a not the simplest car in management - in 2020 even more difficult than in 2019. When Alex joined the team in 2019, he coped well, but the past season was harder for him.
I believe that our youth program performs the tasks set in front of it, and Helmut Marco picks up the right riders. Unreal every season find a new world or winner champion. The fact that we once decided to take the rider not from the program, does not mean that we doubt the system.
Pierre Gasli and Alex Elbon remain our pilots. We have and promising young people - first of all, Yuki CuDoda. A very good impression is made by Liam Lawson and Jurag VIPS. I do not worry about our young riders. "
Source: Formula 1 on F1news.ru