Team bosses prefer to develop for '26 instead of next year? 'Tough'

During Friday's team principal press conference, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella were asked how they were balancing the 2026 development without compromising the 2025 car. Both acknowledged how competitive this year was before moving on to the question. 

Stella on 2025 vs 2026 development

Starting with Stella, he said, "This season I think, has shown a level of competitiveness that possibly is unprecedented in terms of four teams being in condition to win races and potentially being in condition to fight for championships. So the standards at the moment are very, very high in Formula One". He continued, "To stay competitive, you do have to make a lot of investment in terms of development, in terms of performance, which then sets the challenge that you say, where you actually make these investments".

For McLaren and their development, he thinks that "teams nowadays have the capacity to carry two projects together. So, personally, I don't think we are leaving much performance behind because of having to make a choice as to how we are focusing the development at some stage, potentially next year, early next year, I would expect. You might have to make a call and this may depend on what realistically are your opportunities to win races and fight for the championship."

Horner on 2025 vs 2026 development 

Red Bull Racing has struggled immensely this year with its car and its development. When asked about the next two seasons, Horner replied, "It's a tough one because we have the biggest regulation change in probably 50 or 60 years in the history of the sport. So, with that in mind, you know, we hate finishing third in the championship, but the additional wind tunnel time that comes with that is, if you like, the only upside in a year where there is such a dramatic regulatory change". 

He concluded, "So it's a constant balancing act. And if you are in a tight battle, inevitably your development gets dragged into the season longer, which is particularly hard. We saw that [with] ‘21 [going] into ‘22, where you have a big conceptual change of regs. Obviously the earlier [the] start, the bigger advantage you have. But if there is a tight championship and it does go down to the wire, then that's going to be a tough balancing act for the different teams, to choose how they apportion their resource."