Christian Horner makes wind tunnel admission in exciting F1 2024 prediction

Christian Horner has admitted Red Bull will get towards “the top of the curve” with their current car concept, and expects the field to “stretch us more” and close up.

Red Bull have been Formula 1’s dominant force since the move to ground effect aerodynamics at the start of 2022, and have won all but one of the races so far in 2023.

Max Verstappen has taken a record 17 race wins in a single season in the process with two rounds still to go, but Horner believes the chasing pack will be able to hunt them down as their current concept reaches its zenith.

Christian Horner admits ‘returns are going to diminish’ on current concept

Red Bull won both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships seemingly at a canter this season, which allowed the team to focus much of their limited wind tunnel time on preparing their 2024 challenger, the RB20, early.

Given the improvements that many of the teams have made throughout the season, with the likes of McLaren having made massive strides behind them, Horner expects Red Bull’s rivals to potentially close up come the start of next year.

He has spoken previously about the stability of the regulations offering the opportunity for other teams to converge in pace, and he explained that the level at which Red Bull are operating can only reach a certain height before others will catch up with their current concept.

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“It’s always difficult to read too much into those things,” Horner responded when asked about what the team’s wind tunnel data is currently saying about the RB20.

“I think that, you know, there are a lot of World Championships that are won in the wind tunnel [based on] numbers at this time of year.

“I think that we’ve got a great car, we’ve got a great basis. If we keep evolving it, of course, the returns are going to diminish because you’re hitting, you know, the top of the curve.

“You can see it will concertina, it will become closer and that will stretch us more for sure.

“The team are very, very motivated, you can see nobody’s led off since we won the championship. Everybody’s still full on it.”

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