Red Bull says it expects 2020 to be its most expensive year in its Formula 1 history, due to the costs involved in development and research ahead of the 2021 season.
Formula 1 is introducing a $175m budget cap for 2021 but spending will be unrestricted next year, leading to expectations that top teams will spend heavily before the new regulations come into force.
Teams will also be continuing to develop their 2020 cars through next year in parallel with the respective 2021 programmes.
“Obviously now the 2021 regulations are clear we have a team – an advanced team – starting to investigate the regulations,” said Horner.
“It makes it an incredibly expensive year as we’re developing under two types of regulations, and obviously before the new financial cap comes in as well.
“2020 will be an expensive and busy year, certainly off-track as well as on-track.”
Formula 1 chiefs have dismissed suggestions that leading teams can spend heavily in 2020 by pointing to restrictions on windtunnel and CFD time, but Horner laughed off such a notion.
“You have an unrestricted and uncontrolled amount of spend [that] you can spend on research and development in other areas [in 2020],” said Horner.
“I stand by what I said previously in that it would have been better to introduce the cap first and then the regulations a year down the line, because then the budget cap would have constrained the amount of spend.
“Next year looks to be our most expensive year in Formula 1.
“There is an argument to say those teams with more resource will benefit from that [more spending] as they go into 2021.
“Inevitably when there’s a big regulation change somebody gets it right and somebody, others, undershoot, and you just want to make sure you’re at the top of the curve rather than behind it.”
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