Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner, believes there is a "huge difference" that will affect the team for 2024. They have enjoyed a run of 13 unbeaten races since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year, and Max Verstappen looks set to clinch a third drivers title alongside another Constructors' Championship. But the team is bearing an extra handicap on top of their aero testing restriction reduction in the form of their cost cap penalty. This is set to affect their ability to maintain their advantage heading into 2024 Horner told media, including RacingNews365 : "We have that penalty until October this year. "Particularly in terms of the amount of runs that you can do per week, we're significantly down compared to second and third place. "We're massively down once you get back to teams that are fourth, so compared to McLaren, the amount of runs they can do in a wind tunnel versus ourselves, it's a huge, huge difference."
Horner: We have to be very selective
"We have to be very, very selective in the running that we're doing," Horner explains. "That's where the engineering team back in Milton Keynes are doing an incredible job. The way they're effectively and efficiently developing the car." McLaren and Aston Martin have both shown what is possible under the current ATR restrictions, having turned the midfield cars into podium finishers. Given the threat that such a close development race poses behind Red Bull, Horner is still firmly focused on ensuring their slick operation wins championships. "I don't even know who is behind!" he joked. "It's obviously moving around from race to race. All we can do is focus on ourselves and make sure that we're executing clean race weekends."
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