A raft of Red Bull upgrades, including Honda PU

Mark Scott
Red Bull Honda RB16

Honda target penalty-free 2020 season

Red Bull are heading into their home races armed with plenty of new updates on the RB16 as they look to be a major player in the 2020 title battle.

The Milton Keynes-based team have been earmarked as the main rivals to defending champions Mercedes this year with Ferrari seemingly third in the pecking order based on the pre-season stats.

And while Ferrari are stuck with their Barcelona-spec SF1000 for the first two races until they can unleash a completely revamped car in Hungary, Red Bull are pressing forward with immediate upgrades for the season opener.

“We don’t really know where we stand going into Austria and of course the car would have been developed,” Horner said ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

“There would have been updates at the first European races at Zandvoort and Barcelona, there would have been further updates for Montreal, so of course all the updates that were in the pipeline prior to the shutdown, plus whatever we’ve learned subsequent to the shutdown, have been implemented to the car so there are subtle revisions all over the car as part of that update process which I’m sure the other front running teams have also done.”

Get your hands on the official Red Bull 2020 collection via the Formula 1 store

And Red Bull are not just bringing an updated chassis to Austria as their engine suppliers Honda are also ready to introduce a brand-new power unit as well.

Horner added: “We also have an engine upgrade as we essentially introduce what would have been engine number two, which becomes our first engine, so in all aspects of the car there has been an awful lot of work go into and it’s been a race against the clock to get those updates onto the car since reopening the factory at the beginning of June.”

Mercedes has also revealed in the build-up that they too have upgrades ready to introuduce at the Red Bull Ring, which will play host to the first two races of the season in a back-to-back double header.

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