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Christian Horner explains upgrades to RB19 and RB20

Red Bull upgrade package is the last: 'No choice but to shift to 2024'

22 July 2023 at 20:30
Last update 22 July 2023 at 21:01

In Hungary, Red Bull Racing arrived with a major upgrade package and it is likely to be the last package of the year. Team boss Christian Horner explains why the championship team is 'stopping' early on with further development of the RB19.

The team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez is a whopping 208 points ahead of number two Mercedes in the championship. That could already be enough reason to stop upgrading the RB19 within a short time and shift the focus to 2024. Red Bull came up with its latest major upgrade package in Hungary and Horner explained why in an interview with Hungarian Formula.hu.

'Red Bull has to stop with RB19'

Horner: "We have more or less finished this year from the point of view of developments, the team is more or less focused on 2024. Because we have to do this, as we have a disadvantage in terms of the time we can spend in the wind tunnel and the development opportunities." While Horner says the team cannot do otherwise, it is also true that the team would not necessarily have needed to do so either.

Red Bull stops developing the car very early in the season. Partly because the team has to allocate wind tunnel time more effectively due to its penalty and has to look towards 2024 already if it wants to be competitive again next year, but also partly because it is just the smart choice when you have more than double the number of points of the second team on the grid.