Pierre Waché is confident: Red Bull Racing should not repeat the correlation errors encountered in the wind tunnel during the previous regulatory cycle at the dawn of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
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The Milton Keynes team had particularly suffered in 2024, when the development of the RB20 had taken a wrong direction. For a time, these difficulties had even threatened the quest for the drivers’ title of Max Verstappen.
The data from the wind tunnel did not always match the performance observed on track, creating a worrying gap in the aerodynamic understanding of the car.
In the very sensitive context of ground-effect single-seaters, these correlation gaps could be costly. However, a major floor evolution introduced at the US Grand Prix helped restore the balance and the feel of the car, giving Verstappen the performance gain needed to hold off Lando Norris in the championship fight.
Wind tunnel and data precision
The correlation between wind tunnel, CFD, and track is a structural issue. After long renting Toyota’s old facility in Germany, McLaren inaugurated its own ultra-modern wind tunnel in 2023, which coincided with a series of particularly effective evolutions. For its part, Ferrari modernized its tunnel in 2024, notably switching to a rubber rolling road to improve the precision of aerodynamic measurements at low ride heights.
Conversely, Mercedes experienced notable setbacks at the start of the ground-effect era, particularly with the “zeropod” concept, which performed well in the wind tunnel but was disappointing on track during the 2022 season.
Red Bull’s tunnel, located at Twinwoods near Bedford and dating from 1947, is the oldest on the grid. Former team principal Christian Horner himself called it a “Cold War relic,” noting that it had notably served in the development of the Concorde in the 1960s.
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A reduced risk with the 2026 regulations
Asked about the possibility of correlation problems reappearing in 2026, Waché believes the risk is lower with the new technical framework, which moves away from the extreme sensitivity of ground-effect floors to return to more conventional aerodynamics.
“The team suffered a lot at the end of the regulations with correlation, mainly for two reasons,” explains the French engineer. “The first is that the wind tunnel we have is quite old. It’s the oldest in the Formula 1 paddock. The second aspect is that when the regulations reach a plateau, what you are looking to find becomes minimal and the requirement for precision is very high; you can then take the wrong direction.”
“This year, the regulations are new, and the development trajectory… the data you can find is more significant and the risk is lower,” he specifies. “That doesn’t mean there is no risk; it is simply reduced.”
Big resources for the future
Red Bull is, however, preparing for the future with a massive investment in a new state-of-the-art wind tunnel, located directly on its Milton Keynes campus and expected for 2027.
Waché believes that this infrastructure will further reduce correlation uncertainties: “To reduce correlation problems, not yet, but very soon in the future,” he concludes. “The team has invested heavily in the new wind tunnel, in order to have the best on the grid. “
As 2026 approaches, Red Bull therefore seems to want to capitalize on the technical lessons of the previous cycle: improving the robustness of its simulation tools to avoid any conceptual drift, in a regulatory context that promises a new learning phase for the entire paddock.
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