Construction of a new Red Bull wind tunnel will begin next year, team principal Christian Horner has confirmed, and the team hopes to have it operational until 2026.
The new wind tunnel will be built at the team’s factory in Milton Keynes and will upgrade the facilities it currently uses near Bedford, which is more than 70 years old.
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Asked during a recent Christmas lunch with the media about the progress made in the new wind tunnel, team principal Horner said: “As everyone is of the opinion that wind tunnels are a long-term thing [in Formula 1], we had to go through the times and ‘invest in a new wind tunnel. Construction will begin in 2024. ‘
The new facility is expected to be completed by 2026, but Horner doubts it will affect the team’s competitiveness until 2027.
“You don’t need to introduce it in the middle of the season, you have to designate a tunnel for the year, that’s how it will be to make the 27th car. “
The origins of the team’s current facility date back to 1947 when the U.K.’s newly-created National Aeronautical Establishment constructed a site with four wind tunnels designed to test military and civil aircraft at a range of speeds from 80mph to Mach 5.
The tunnel that eventually became Red Bull’s asset was originally designed to test aircraft at low speeds, adding take-offs and landings, and was used for the progression of the Concorde in the 1960s, among many other military projects. The Jaguar F1 team acquired a 123-year two-year lease from the construction in 2003, when the tunnel’s former occupants, Arrows, closed in 2002, meaning the facility was part of the deal when Red Bull bought Jaguar ahead of its F1 debut in 2005.
Red Bull’s use of the wind tunnel has been limited by the FIA over the past year, partly due to F1’s Aerodynamic Testing Regulations [ATR], which limits testing capacity as a team ranks first in the constructors’ championship, and partly because Red Bull’s penalty for exceeding F1’s load limit in 2021.
The penalty restriction expired in October this year, but Horner says the nature of the former facility near Bedford, which was once regarded as one of the world’s most productive wind tunnels due to its concrete construction, presents a number of original limitations. .
“Our allowance increased a bit in October, as we’d served the penalty, so it allowed seven percent more time,” he said. “But again, that’s eight percent less than any other competitor [due to the ATR]. That’s just the way these regulations are.
“And specifically with the wind tunnel that we have, which is a relic of the Cold War and not exactly effective, specifically in a cold climate, which is a tendency to have in the UK, we have to be very, very selective. That’s where the team has brilliantly controlled being selective in the spaces in which we channel our development. “