I’m so confused, I always assume Horner is double speaking and shit talking but I can’t quite figure out the angle here. Is it: “Go ahead and equalise the engines and fight amongst yourselves we have aero advantage anyway”?
Engine equalisation would cut development costs massively, figuratively speaking in any technology 95% of the performance is achieved with 50% of the budget, so the big spends are always on the tiny things that keep you ahead of the competition, if everyone is equalised then there is no reason to waste money on developments that get the extra 2 or 3 HP from the system.
The other angle I haven’t seen suggested here is that this is a forward-looking insurance play from Horner. At the moment RBPT are winning off the back of development work done by Honda in previous years. Nonetheless, they are new to the engine game and there is likely some substantial concern that when the next engine regs come they will be left floundering.
By backing the equalisation they give themselves precedent to demand the same again a few years down the line if RB engines fall behind the pack. They are likely very confident in the rest of their current package, to the point that they can risk making the current situation more competitive in order to guard against future disaster.
I don’t especially like Horner, but I think it’s hard to argue that he’s anything but an excellent team principle, possibly the best on the grid. If he’s doing this there is zero chance it’s for altruistic reasons - there is a play for RB here somewhere, it’s just a case of figuring out what it is.
I can see a few reasons why I think red bull won’t be against this.
They believe they have the best drive on the grid. Put everyone in identical cars and Max still probably wins everything
They believe their aero package is better than anyone else
They were helped by a similar thing a few years ago when Honda was dropping engine manufacturing. Paying back the karma
Helps keep costs down. Making an engine be as good as everyone else is significantly easier than making an engine better than everyone else. There becomes a point when it is exponentially harder to increase performance
I’m so confused, I always assume Horner is double speaking and shit talking but I can’t quite figure out the angle here. Is it: “Go ahead and equalise the engines and fight amongst yourselves we have aero advantage anyway”?
Engine equalisation would cut development costs massively, figuratively speaking in any technology 95% of the performance is achieved with 50% of the budget, so the big spends are always on the tiny things that keep you ahead of the competition, if everyone is equalised then there is no reason to waste money on developments that get the extra 2 or 3 HP from the system.
Pareto efficiency for the win?
This sounds so sensible that I am still shocked that Christian “It wasn’t me” Horner has said it 😃.
I think Horner is for it because he knows it will harm the competitors more than Red Bull.
The other angle I haven’t seen suggested here is that this is a forward-looking insurance play from Horner. At the moment RBPT are winning off the back of development work done by Honda in previous years. Nonetheless, they are new to the engine game and there is likely some substantial concern that when the next engine regs come they will be left floundering.
By backing the equalisation they give themselves precedent to demand the same again a few years down the line if RB engines fall behind the pack. They are likely very confident in the rest of their current package, to the point that they can risk making the current situation more competitive in order to guard against future disaster.
I don’t especially like Horner, but I think it’s hard to argue that he’s anything but an excellent team principle, possibly the best on the grid. If he’s doing this there is zero chance it’s for altruistic reasons - there is a play for RB here somewhere, it’s just a case of figuring out what it is.
This makes the most sense to me. Never trust Horner.
I can see a few reasons why I think red bull won’t be against this.
because they don’t really want to make engines and don’t want a repeat of 2014 with the next engine regulation change.
If I’m not mistaken Red Bull will be making their own engines from either 2024 or 2026? I’m sure I read they they are building that facility now.
Maybe he’s concerned that their first engine will be down on power compared to the rest, in which case equalising would benefit him.
yeah they are because they have to. I’m sure they would prefer not to.
this is what it sounds like, Red Bull has Adrian Newey so might as well neutralize the engine advantage that Ferrari or Merc could possibly have