The 2024 F1 season did not end as Red Bull hoped. After winning the constructors' championshiop the previous two seasons, the Milton Keynes squad faltered in pursuit of a three-peat.
However, slipping behind McLaren and Ferrari in the standings has gifted Red Bull a significant advantage - not only for the campaign ahead, but for the one after, too.
This is due to the system within F1 that allocates wind tunnel time to each of its 10 teams. Every six months, championship position determines how much development time is allowed per competitor; the higher a team is ranked, the less wind tunnel time it is afforded.
Broken into blocks of 60 hours, McLaren will enjoy 840 hours to Red Bull's 960. In short, the Woking squad has 120 fewer hours than the Christian Horner-led team up until June 23, when the next reset takes place.
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Downstream benefits
The fact this is an advantage to Red Bull is obvious. However, there is an added, unique-to-2025 layer that can be capitalised on by the team.
This year is being viewed by many as an intermediate year - or a lame duck season ahead of a new regulatory era in F1.
In addition to significant changes penned for power units, there will also be a major overhaul of the aerodynamic rules.
With teams allowed to work on the latter area from the start of January this year, wind tunnel time will be at a premium throughout the campaign ahead.
In theory, if Red Bull can match McLaren's development in just 840 hours, as the papaya squad has in total, it would leave its additional 120 hours free for added focus on the 2026 car - but it will have to use its initial hours more efficiently than McLaren to close the existing performance gap.
It will be tough for any team to know how best to split its allocation between this year and next, but relative to McLaren - and to a lesser extent Ferrari - Red Bull does have a significant joker to play.
Halfway through the coming season, that advantage may come to an end, when the balance gets reassessed and benchmarked against the constructors' standings at the time.
If Red Bull leads the way at that stage, for example, it would again have to surrender wind tunnel hours to the chasing pack.
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