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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner does not believe the FIA will introduce a “draconian” new rule in a bid to end its current dominance of F1.
The constructors’ champions head into the Italian Grand Prix on the back of a record 13-race winning streak stretching back to the final event of last season in Abu Dhabi, whilst it has won 23 of the last 24 grands prix, and 29 of 34 since the introduction of new aerodynamic regulations.
Two-time F1 champion Max Verstappen could set a new drivers’ record of 10 successive victories should he triumph again around Monza where he won from seventh on the grid last year.
On occasion in the past, when a team has dominated, regulations have been introduced by the FIA designed to shake up the order and offer an opportunity for rivals to play catch-up.
Horner does not see a repeat of that happening prior to a major regulatory change in 2026 when new power units are introduced.
“The regulations are pretty stable,” said Horner. “We have three sets of regulations now – technical, sporting and financial.
“The technical and sporting playing fields seem to be reasonably content. The financial one, there seems to be a little bit of manoeuvring now and again, but I think the regulations are stable for the next couple of years.
“We fully expect our competitors…I mean, look at the jump McLaren made recently, so we fully expect there to be convergence, even this year, before we head into 2024.
“I’m not aware of any draconian, significant regulation changes in the pipeline. We have that already for 2026, which will be a complete reset.
“Despite the fact we’ve done a lot of winning this year, a lot of the races, including the last one, (have been) pretty entertaining – or certainly from where we were sitting, it was.
“I don’t think the sport is lacking entertainment at this point in time.”
Ferrari is a team under pressure to deliver results as it has achieved just three podiums in 12 races this season, and is without a win for over a year.
The SF-23 has proven to be a complicated car to understand, with its performance shifting from track to track, and often not matching the predicted outcome provided by wind tunnel data.
Team principal Fred Vasseur is adamant, however, that he does not want any kind of outside assistance.
“I’m not a big fan of the balance of performance or any kind of artifice like this,” said Vasseur. “It’s not the DNA at all of Formula 1.
“And on top, we already have the wind tunnel allocation, with a kind of balance, not balance of performance but balance of allocation and it’s enough.”
That is with reference to the fact there is a sliding scale of wind tunnel time allocated to each team based on its performance from the previous year.
Whilst McLaren has taken significant strides this season with its package from a struggling position at the start of the campaign as it was behind in its pre-season development, team principal Andrea Stella has made clear he also needs no help to close the gap to Red Bull that still exists.
“I agree (with Vasseur),” said Stella. “We don’t want to have any help.
“We want to close the gap by our own means. We like this challenge, and that’s what we want for the next couple of years.”
