"It was a full colonoscopy": Red Bull boss on FIA's cost cap review processes

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner believes the process of cost cap is still evolving. The teams went through rigorous scrutiny during the summer break, which Horner labeled as a "full colonoscopy".

The Austrian team were found guilty of breaching the cost cap in the 2022 season which made them sacrifice CFD time and pay a huge amount as a financial penalty.

The cost cap penalty was nullified by the superior performance of the RB19 this season, however, the Red Bull team boss was certain that the penalty had impacted the development of this year's car. Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1, Horner said:

“Well, certainly, you’ve not seen the full impact yet because it obviously has compromised the development we’ve been able to do this year. I think the process of the cost cap is evolving. It’s a very complex set of regulations that have evolved and the degree of scrutiny this year was, phenomenal in terms of the rigor that the FIA went to – it was a full colonoscopy we experienced during the summer.

“I think that the FIA are learning as well from their side and the rules have evolved and, of course, every company is structured in a slightly different way as well, which adds to the complexity, whether you’ve got subsidiary accounts or what your reporting group is, for example, and so that has a bearing as well."

Red Bull team boss speaks on the lack of development to the RB19

The world champions brought their last major upgrade in Spa before the summer break and Horner claimed that the team hadn't brought any big parts since.

With the CFD restrictions from the cost cap penalty, Red Bull has chosen to focus on RB20 rather than RB19 as they had a very fast car in 2023. He said:

“You have to remember that since the summer break, we’ve really added very little performance, if anything, to the car. With the wind tunnel restrictions that we’ve had, we’ve elected to use that on RB20, next year’s car, as opposed to continuing the development on our RB19.

“And that’s not to say whatever we do now we don’t learn and apply for next year, but we’ve managed to be consistent at a whole variance of circuits.

It will be fascinating to see if Red Bull can bring out another monster in 2024 given the headstart they had over their rivals this season. It would be rather difficult for Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari to catch them if they continue with this momentum next season.