Red Bull’s slump to third in the constructors’ championship in 2024 has a silver lining.
It has an increase in windtunnel and CFD testing resources for the first six months of next year following the latest reallocation under Formula 1’s aerodynamic testing regulations (ATR) that team principal Christian Horner describes as "the only upside" to its situation.
The ATR was introduced in 2021 and restricts aerodynamic testing using a sliding scale based on constructors’ championship position. This is to act as a gentle form of handicapping, the idea being that the less competitive a team is, the more aerodynamic testing it can do in order to improve.
The year is divided into six ATR periods, three in each half of the calendar, with a baseline allowance of 320 windtunnel runs and 2000 CFD items in each one. However, only one team - whichever is seventh in the championship - has that exact allowance as it increases or decreases in five per cent steps for each constructors’ position.
Every six months, this is reset as per the framework set out in appendix seven of the F1 sporting regulations.
Red Bull has had the lowest aerodynamic testing allowance since the second half of 2022 having led the constructors’ championship halfway through that season, but dropping to third in the final standings in 2024 means it jumps from 70% of the aerodynamic testing limits to 80% for the first half of next year.
It’s one of two teams to make such a gain, with RB jumping from 95% to 105% of the baseline allocation after slipping from sixth in the standings mid-season to eighth at the end.
“We hate finishing third in the championship, but the additional windtunnel time that comes with that is the only upside in a year where there is such a dramatic regulatory change [coming, in 2026],” said Horner. “It’s a constant balancing act and if you are in the title battle, inevitably your development gets dragged into the season longer.”
The difference is small but significant, enough to be a small compensation for finishing lower in the championship. For Red Bull, it means an increase from 224 to 256 windtunnel runs and from 1400 to 1600 CFD items per ATR period. In total, it will have an extra 96 windtunnel runs and 600 CFD items in the first half of next season compared to the same time in 2024.
Constructors’ champion McLaren goes the other way, having been third in the standings when the allocations were reset in the middle of this year. Alpine has made a similar gain, climbing from eighth to sixth and dropping from 105% of the allocation to 95%.
"You would always take P1 in the championship and then see how you can improve your efficiency in terms of aerodynamic development in the combination of CFD and windtunnel time,” said McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
"Chasing efficiency is not only thanks to the windtunnel, but is in the whole approach to aerodynamic development. We have experienced ourself that even if you have more and more restrictions, from a development point of view, the way you generate the knowledge, the efficiency, is by far the most important thing.
"It's not like because I have three times the windtunnel time, I will necessarily develop the car three times faster. So it’s not necessarily about quantity, we are very much investing in quality of development."
Ferrari sits in between McLaren and Red Bull in terms of its ATR allocation having finished second in the championship.
That means there is no change in its windtunnel/CFD resources for the first half of next year, although by missing out on the constructors’ championship, team principal Fred Vasseur believes it will be able to throw a little more aero testing at the 2026 project in the first half of 2025 with aero testing for the approaching rule change allowed from the start of January.
"It will probably be more for 2026, because in 2025 on the 31st of December when we will turn on the next [ATR] slot, I don't want to say that all the job will be done because we will continue to develop at the beginning of 2025, the car of 2025, but we will all be fully focused on 2026 quite early into the season," said Vasseur.
No team would deliberately drop down the championship standings in order to increase its aerodynamic testing allowance given the steps aren’t big enough to justify that and each position gained is worth over $10million in prize money.
However, with the challenge of balancing 2025 development with the dramatically different cars for the ‘26 regulations change, there is at least a partial payback for underachievement on track.