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Aug 20, 2023

Next regulations ‘will do everything they possibly can to screw Red Bull’ : PlanetF1

Le Mans winner Richard Bradley has predicted that the next set of regulations will “screw” Red Bull in an effort to curtail their dominance. Red Bull have become an all-conquering force in 2023 with

Le Mans winner Richard Bradley has predicted that the next set of regulations will “screw” Red Bull in an effort to curtail their dominance.

Red Bull have become an all-conquering force in 2023 with their two drivers winning all 12 of the races so far and looking likely to continue that streak once the summer break is over.

This has led many to wonder when their era of dopamine will come to an end and they may well be waiting until 2026 at the earliest for that is when the next set of regulation changes.

While the 2026 power unit changes are not expected to be as dramatic as the 2022 regulation changes which focused on chassis design and aero, Bradley predicted FOM and the FIA will do everything they can to “screw” Red Bull.

“The way of FOM and the FIA, they always design rule cycles specifically to screw the team that’s leading at the time,” he told the On Track GP podcast. “Because they will literally want to put that team down.

“We’ve seen it over history. They did it with Williams when they got rid of the active suspension and all the electronic aids. They did it for Ferrari so all of a sudden Renault became dominant and that’s when [Fernando] Alonso won his championships.

“You can tell that they’re going to target Red Bull. Then we’re going to find what makes Red Bull weak and try and exploit that. So there will come a time in the cycle that Red Bull will lose out and another manufacturer may come to the top. I think then that’s when you’re going to have to seriously reevaluate the situation.”

The new regulations are still three years away but already some voices have begun to raise concern. The most notable amongst them was Red Bull boss Christian Horner who urged a rethink of the regulations in order to avoid a “Frankenstein” car with an enormous battery.

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Bradley believed that one of the reasons Horner was being vocal is he knows the rules are being drawn up to hurt his team.

“I think it [Red Bull’s downfall] will come, we just have to be patient. As we’ve always seen over the years, Formula 1 goes in ebbs and flows of dominance.

“The rule makers do like to specifically target who’s dominating at the time so the next set of regs will be everything that they possibly can be to screw Red Bull, which is probably why Christian Horner has been the most vocal about them.”