The development of the Red Bull RB21 car is set to benefit from increased development time after Formula 1’s aerodynamic testing allocations were reset for the F1 2025 season.
Max Verstappen claimed a fourth consecutive title in F1 2024, seeing off the threat of Lando Norris to seal the World Championship with two races to spare.
Red Bull RB21 the big winner as sliding scale reset for F1 2025 season
However, Verstappen’s Red Bull team were unable to retain the Constructors’ crown as McLaren secured their first teams’ title since 1998.
With Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez struggling to contribute consistent points, however, Red Bull were forced to settle for third in the final standings – 63 points behind second-placed Ferrari, who in turn fell 14 short of McLaren.
Perez has since been replaced for the F1 2025 campaign, with Liam Lawson stepping up from the Racing Bulls junior team to become Verstappen’s new team-mate.
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F1 has operated with a sliding scale for aerodynamic testing since the start of the 2021 season, with the order based on the position of each team in the Constructors’ standings.
It means the team in last place in the Constructors’ standings will enjoy considerably more aerodynamic research time than the title winners, with the aim to create closer competition between the sport’s 10 teams.
The sliding scale is reset twice during each calendar year – on January 1 to match the final order of the previous year’s Constructors’ standings and again on July 1 to reflect the state of play at the halfway stage of each season.
Red Bull held a 64-point lead over Ferrari, with an extra 23-point buffer to McLaren, when the sliding scale was last reset on the day after the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix.
After dropping to third in the second half of the season, however, the team are set for a major boost as preparations for the F1 2025 season ramp up.
The Red Bull RB21 will benefit from significantly more wind tunnel and CFD time than McLaren’s F1 2025 car and Ferrari’s Project 677, which according to team boss Fred Vasseur is poised to be a “completely new” car for the final year of the current regulations.
After making a dominant start to last season, winning four of the first five races, Red Bull struggled as the F1 2024 campaign developed in the face of a renewed threat from the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.
It prompted Verstappen to claim that the team had turned the dominant car of 2023 into “a monster” with the Dutch driver winning just two races following the Spanish GP in June.
The pressure is on Red Bull to hit back strongly in F1 2025 under the technical leadership of PierreWaché in what will be the team’s first full season without F1 design guru Adrian Newey since their debut campaign two decades ago.
In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix,Waché teased that the Red Bull RB21 could “be different” to its predecessor after the team gambled on a new design concept for F1 2024.
He said:“At the moment, the idea is to develop this concept, develop this car as much as possible.
“Because the championship is there to be fought and we’ll try to win it.
“Then, next year, we evaluate the concept that we will put on track – that it will be different than this year, for sure, and try to find another step of performance.”
The sliding scale reset is also likely to be welcomed by Mercedes, who finished a distant fourth – 121 points adrift of Red Bull – in the Constructors’ standings.
After suffering their first winless season in 11 years in 2023, Mercedes claimed a total of four victories across F1 2024 as the W15 car proved more successful than its predecessor.
With more wind tunnel and CFD time available than their three main competitors, the Brackley-based team could make a further step with the new W16 for F1 2025.
Aston Martin, who announced the signing of Newey from Red Bull during F1 2024, are also set to benefit from increased aerodynamic research time having finished a disappointing fifth last season.
Former Ferrari technical director Enrico Cardile is believed to have started work with Aston Martin today (January 1), with Newey poised to officially link up with his new employers in March.
Sauber are the team with most aero research team available in the first half of F1 2025, having finished bottom of the 2024 standings with just four points.
The Swiss-based team will become Audi F1 next year as the German manufacturer makes its long-awaited Formula 1 entry.
All 10 teams will be in attendance at F1’s first-ever collective season launch event in London on February 18, with a three-day test in Bahrain scheduled for February 26-28.
The F1 2025 season will begin with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16.
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