Red Bull engineers claim the F1 cost-cap penalty cost them 0.15 seconds per lap

Red Bull is currently dominating F1 after the intense 2021 F1 season. The Austrian-British team was quick to develop a car that complied with the new 2022 technical regulations and was the first team to crack the formula for being the fastest car by a large margin.

Despite getting hit with a hefty penalty for breaching the cost cap in 2021, they are able to lead both championships in 2023. However, this was not easy, according to their engineers.

According to reports from an Italian publication, Courriere, Red Bull engineers are saying that the team needs to be quite cautious in bringing new upgrades and utilizing their reduced wind tunnel time, both because they are the reigning world champions and because of the penalty.

The engineers have stated that their team is unable to be as aggressive as other teams in terms of bringing upgrades. One of their major development packages has arrived in Hungary after almost half the season, while other teams have brought at least two or three of them.

One of the main reasons why Red Bull has been able to dominate in 2023 despite the penalty is because they already had a solid foundation and concept from 2022, when they won both championships. Hence, they were able to hit the ground running this year.

According to the team's engineers, the reduced wind tunnel time causes their cars to be 0.15 seconds slower on each lap of racing. However, due to their concept prowess, the Austrian-British team is still able to close such a massive gap.

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F1 pundit analyzes Red Bull's biggest advantage over its rivals

F1 pundit Mark Hughes recently spoke about how Red Bull's aerodynamic efficiency is one of the key reasons why the team is able to dominate over other teams.

He explained how the RB19 is quick on both the straights and corners, a balance that other teams are simply unable to strike in the same configuration.

Speaking on The Race podcast, he said:

"What makes it [RB19] so good is it's outstanding aero efficiency, and that's quite measurable. When you look at the GPS traces, there are corners where, say, an Aston Martin or a Mercedes can be just as fast or faster even."

He added:

"But in order to do it can't be anything like as fast on the straights. And if they set it up to be comparably fast on the straights to the Red Bull, then they can't achieve the Red Bull's cornering speed."

The Austrian-British outfit is currently leading the constructors championship with 411 points, while Max Verstappen leads the drivers' championship with 255 points. These numbers are likely to increase after the upcoming 2023 F1 Hungarian GP.