Report: The Red Bull wind tunnel truth exposed – Red Bull are the team which everyone seems to want to bring down something to which Christian Horner turns to repeatedly when he believes the `F1 media coverage of them has been unfair. Broadcast by Netflix in 2023, the Red Bull team boss was recorded making the claim that in the UK this unfair treatment comes from the Lewis Hamilton fans, who are many.
“When you’re competing against the most successful driver of all time and denying him winning, it’s inevitable we’re not going to be that popular with all the Lewis Hamilton fans,” he said while seated in his office.
“But we’re British based, 95 per cent of the people we employ are British. We just don’t have British drivers,” concludes Horner. Yet when Max Verstappen wins a Grand Prix, it is the Dutch and Austrian anthems which are played, for Hamilton it was the British and the German anthems at the time Horner was recorded, something which is also noted by the fans.
Red Bull portrayed as ‘in crisis’
The Red Bull 2025 season has so far in general been portrayed in the F1 media as that of a team in crisis. Before even a wheel turned in anger, the post winter testing reviews all had McLaren significantly ahead of the field. Come the first qualifying session of the year in Melbourne this appeared to be confirmed.
Norris and Piastri qualified ahead of Verstappen in third, but the Red Bull driver could only manage a lap almost half a second from his British rivals pole position times. The alarm bells were sounded for Red Bull as McLaren were hailed the team to beat even prior to the first race of the year.
As it turned out, a mistake from Piastri saw him score just a single point which then saw Verstappen hunting Lando Norris down right the way to the chequered flag. In China Max qualified just fourth – sound the bells once more – yet his deficit to pole sitter Norris was much reduced to around 0.2 seconds. A miserable race saw Max trundle home in P4 some 16 seconds of the pace of the race winner.
A win in Japan, misery in Bahrain and a roller coaster outing in Saudi see Red Bull trailing McLaren badly in the constructors’ title race, yet despite Verstappen missing the podium places twice in the first five weekends, he remains just 12 points behind Oscar Piastri who leads his team mate by ten.
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Horner again blames ‘Cold War’ wind tunnel
Red Bull were buoyed by the weekend in Jeddah, where Max claimed an incredible pole position and whilst he lost the win of the race in controversial circumstances, overall the RB21 was a match for the McLaren’s with Christian Horner claiming it may even have been quicker than the papaya liveried cars.
Yet just three days earlier, Horner was once again explaining his team’s poor start to the season was due to their ‘cold war wind tunnel.’ Yet this was the same wind tunnel which saw Max and Red Bull destroy most F1 records in 2023. Further, as Sky presenter Natalie Pinkham observed, the Racing Bulls use the same wind tunnel and their car is much easier to drive according to Max.
In the Jeddah paddock, Horner told Pinkham: “When you get to the finer elements of a set of regulations like this, the wind tunnel we have is a relic of the Cold War, so it has its limitations, which is why we’ve invested in a new tunnel that’s in the process of being constructed.”
Pinkham quipped: “Is it not the same one that Racing Bulls use, though?”
Racing Bulls have no correlation issues
Horner took a deep breath before agreeing, “Yes, it is,” to which the Sky presenter asked: “And they haven’t experienced the same issues?” The Red Bull boss retorted, “Well, I think they have, because they’re not on pole position, are they?”
Having wheeled out the old wind tunnel excuses more than once this year, Horner has clearly piqued the interest of a number of paddock folk. Karun Chandhok now gives his views on the matter on this weeks F1 show.
“Every time I listen to Christian Horner’s ‘our wind tunnel’s a relic of the Cold War’ thing, it’s just PR spin isn’t it?” Chandhok said. “He’s such a master politician. He’s the master of deflection.
“I don’t see Racing Bulls complaining about correlation. They use the same wind tunnel. I actually asked a couple of the people at Racing Bulls whether they’d struggled with the correlation. They said ‘nope’. It comes back to a Red Bull Racing issue.”
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Margins tighter as regulations mature
Of course there are competitive reasons why someone from the smaller of the two Red Bull owned racing outfits would like to get one over on their bog brother rivals. But assuming it is true and the Racing Bulls are not having correlation difficulties, then it is Red Bull’s other tools which are at fault.
Horner did make the point in Bahrain that the shortcomings of the wind tunnel were less obvious in previous years, given the size of the advantage Red Bull had over the field. But now the teams are converging in their car design, those last few hundredths of a second are now all important and Red Bull claim their wind tunnel cannot work to such small tolerances.
Following the race in Jeddah, it appears Red Bull are on the way to conquering any demons people suggest they may have had, yet there was more controversy in Saudi Arabia as Max Verstappen was given a five second penalty which cost him the race. Christian Horner came out to defend his megastar driver, with a photo allegedly showing that Max was fully alongside Piastri when he was forced off the track.
Ex-F1 steward attacks Horner
Now media personality and a former F1 steward attacks Christian Horner claiming he has “zero understanding” of wheel to wheel racing. “I don’t know how people will argue that it was an unfair penalty,” Herbert explained to Beste Online Casino Nederland. “The people arguing against it have probably never been in a race car, and definitely not in an F1 car, so they have zero understanding.
“I’ll include Christian Horner in this, too. I know he’s the team principal and he’s trying to do what’s best for Red Bull, but sometimes you have to just admit you’re wrong and give the place back. Most drivers are very aware of when they should give the place back.”
Herbert was released by Sky F1 for 2024, although he continued his duties as a driver steward. Then a very public spat erupted between him, Red Bull and Max Verstappen after what Herbert described as Verstappen displaying a “horrible mindset” in the Mexican Grand Prix.
The FIA examined the matter and concluded that Herbert as a steward and also being an F1 pundit were incompatible roles and created a conflict of interest. Herbert was released from the FIA panel for this season, but retains a voice from the online betting Casino’s he represents.
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Talks between Red Bull and Russell – With five whirlwind Formula One race weekends now complete, the circus will end its way to Miami before the start of the European racing season. So much has happened in just six weeks of competition, with Hamilton taking his first win for Ferrari in the Shanghai Sprint and Oscar Piastri is now the first Australian to lead the F1 drivers’ title race since his manager Mark Webber back in 2010.
Red Bull have switched drivers already and Max Verstappen is surprisingly close in the drivers’ championship despite his single win in Japan. Dr. Helmut Marko has been up to his usual tricks stirring up rumours of how and when Verstappen may leave the Red Bull team, he confirmed prior to the Saudi Grand Prix, that the summer break would be the time the world champion wold exercise his exit clause, but with the caveat that ‘if at all.’
Clandestine meetings have been held over the problems facing certain manufacturers/teams with the new 2026 regulations, with the latest proposal being the 50/50 split between electrical power and that of the internal combustion engine be reduced. The 350kw rated electric motors are to be de-tuned to just 200kw during racing, although the full 200bhp extra will be allowed in qualifying and for making overtakes…. READ MORE ON THIS STORY
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