Red Bull provides timeline for long-awaited new F1 wind tunnel
by Ronald Vording · AutosportMax Verstappen has named it one of the factors giving him additional hope for 2027. In Mexico, team principal Laurent Mekies offers an indication of when Red Bull will actually be able to benefit from its new tool
Although Red Bull has turned its 2026 Formula 1 season around in impressive fashion, the technical team led by Pierre Wache is still dealing with several limitations behind the scenes. One of the main ones is perhaps the wind tunnel, the oldest on the entire F1 grid.
Former team principal Christian Horner repeatedly described Red Bull's wind tunnel as "a Cold War relic" and said working with the 70-year-old facility near Bedford was like looking at "two different watches", highlighting that the correlation had more than once failed to match what happened on track.
Red Bull has seemingly suffered little from that while improving its 2026 challenger, although Mekies acknowledges that the new facility should, in theory, provide the team with a competitive advantage.
"I think you're right. As much as the wind tunnel that we are using has ultimately been producing extraordinary results over the last few years, I think you are right in your assessment that it is most likely the oldest one on the grid," Mekies said when asked about the wind tunnel by Autosport.
"As a result, if you jump to a state-of-the-art facility – and the team have really tried to design and now produce something that will put us back at the very first place in that area – of course you expect a competitive advantage from there."
Wind tunnels have become a major area of investment in F1. McLaren used Toyota’s in Cologne from 2010, but has been able to rely on its own facility since the summer of 2023 – something clearly linked to the team’s progress since then.
Aston Martin also has a state-of-the-art wind tunnel on its Silverstone campus, described by Adrian Newey as the best in the business, although the benefits have yet to be reflected in the on-track performances due to other limiting factors.
The latter also underlines that a new wind tunnel does not immediately guarantee an improvement and that it often takes time to fully understand the new tool and extract its maximum potential.
"So, [the competitive advantage] is not going to come up as soon as we switch on everything," Mekies admitted. "But it's certainly going to unlock potential and give the talented people that we have in the aero department another way to express their ideas."
When Verstappen mentioned the new wind tunnel as one of the less obvious factors giving him confidence for 2027, he immediately made clear that it would naturally not help with the initial development of the RB23, which is already under way. However, he added that it could contribute to further development of the 2027 car throughout the season.
When Autosport asked Mekies whether he had an update on when Red Bull would actually be able to start using the new wind tunnel – which is located on the Milton Keynes campus, making things easier logistically as well – the Frenchman responded: "In terms of the timeline, it is not ready yet. It's something that will come online sometime during next season.
"Is it the first quarter, second quarter or third quarter? We will see. It will be based on how much time we need to get it online first, and then also to complete the calibration work. So, it will most likely be for the second part of the 2027 car and hopefully for most of the 2028 car."
We want to hear from you!
Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.
- The Autosport.com Team
Read and post comments