F1 cost cap penalty ‘will hurt Red Bull’, claims former aero chief
Fallows played a key role in Red Bull’s aero department between 2010 and 2013, helping the team to win four consecutive F1 drivers’ and constructors’ titles.
He was promoted to head of aerodynamics in 2014 - a role he held until 2021 before deciding to make the switch to Aston Martin.
Red Bull were hit with a fine and a cut in development time as part of their punishment for overspending in Max Verstappen’s first title-winning campaign.
The reigning world champions were initially set to have their wind tunnel quota set at 70 percent, but that was reduced to 63 percent following their breach of the cost cap.
While the impact of the punishment isn’t entirely clear, Fallows is certain Red Bull will be hurt” by it.
“They’ve come from a very strong position with last year’s car,” Fallows told media including Crash.net. “There are regulation changes for this year, as we know, but they’re not massive. So they are clearly in a very good, very strong position going into this year.
“That kind of restriction with your wind tunnel hours - you even get it, obviously, as you go up the grid - that does hurt. I think that restriction will hurt them to some extent.”
Red Bull dominated last year’s championship, winning 17 of the 22 races.
Thus, Fallows is confident his former employer will “minimise the impacts of that penalty”.
“But I think they have a great deal of strength in depth and they have a lot of experience of this rules set," he added. "So I’m fairly confident that they will minimise the impacts of that penalty.”
