红牛期待启用新风洞，梅基斯给出时间线索
红牛2026赛季表现回升，但技术团队仍受制于F1围场中最老旧的风洞。车队领队梅基斯在墨西哥透露了何时能用上新风洞的线索。
红牛预计何时开始使用期待已久的新F1风洞
维斯塔潘称新风洞是他对2027年抱有额外希望的因素之一。在墨西哥，车队领队洛朗·梅基斯给出了红牛何时才能真正受益于这一新工具的线索。
尽管红牛以令人印象深刻的方式扭转了2026赛季的F1局面，但由皮埃尔·瓦什领导的技术团队在幕后仍要应对多项限制。其中之一或许就是风洞——整个F1围场中最老旧的一座。
前领队克里斯蒂安·霍纳曾多次将红牛的风洞形容为“冷战遗物”，并称在贝德福德附近这座已有70年历史的设施里工作就像在看“两块不同的表”，并强调其相关性不止一次与赛道上的实际情况对不上。
红牛在改进其2026年赛车的过程中似乎几乎没有受到这方面的影响，尽管梅基斯承认，从理论上讲，新设施应该能为车队带来竞争优势。
当被Motorsport.com问及风洞时，梅基斯表示：“我认为你说得对。尽管我们目前使用的风洞在过去几年里最终产出了非凡的成果，但我认为你的评估是对的，它很可能是发车区上最老旧的风洞。”
“因此，如果你跃升到最先进的设施——而车队确实一直在努力设计并现在建造出能让我们在该领域重回第一位置的东西——你当然会期望从中获得竞争优势。”
风洞已成为F1中的一大投资领域。迈凯伦从2010年起使用丰田在科隆的风洞，但自2023年夏天以来已能依靠自己的设施——这显然与车队自那以后的进步有关。
阿斯顿·马丁在其银石园区也拥有一座最先进的风洞，阿德里安·纽维称其为业内最佳，尽管由于其他限制因素，其优势尚未在赛道表现中体现出来。
后者还强调，新风洞并不能立即保证性能提升，通常需要时间才能完全理解这一新工具并挖掘其最大潜力。
“所以，[竞争优势]不会在我们一启动所有设备时就立刻显现，”梅基斯承认。“但它肯定会释放潜力，并为我们空气动力学部门的人才提供另一种表达想法的方式。”
当维斯塔潘提到新风洞是给他2027年信心的不那么明显的因素之一时，他立即明确表示，这自然不会有助于已经启动的小红牛23的初期研发。不过，他补充说，它可能有助于2027年赛车在整个赛季中的进一步研发。
当 Motorsport.com 询问梅基斯，他是否有关于红牛何时才能真正开始使用新风洞的最新消息时——该风洞位于米尔顿凯恩斯园区，因此在后勤方面也更加便利——这位法国人回应道：“就时间线而言，它还没有准备好。它会在下个赛季的某个时候上线。”
“是第一季度、第二季度还是第三季度？我们拭目以待。这将取决于我们首先需要多少时间让它上线，然后再完成校准工作。因此，它很可能将用于 2027 年赛车的后半部分研发，并有望用于 2028 年赛车的大部分研发。”
英文原文
When Red Bull expects to start using its long-awaited new F1 wind tunnel
Max Verstappen has named it one of the factors giving him additional hope for 2027. In Mexico, team principal Laurent Mekies offers an indication of when Red Bull will actually be able to benefit from its new tool
Although Red Bull has turned its 2026 Formula 1 season around in impressive fashion, the technical team led by Pierre Wache is still dealing with several limitations behind the scenes. One of the main ones is perhaps the wind tunnel, the oldest on the entire F1 grid.
Former team principal Christian Horner repeatedly described Red Bull's wind tunnel as "a Cold War relic" and said working with the 70-year-old facility near Bedford was like looking at "two different watches", highlighting that the correlation had more than once failed to match what happened on track.
Red Bull has seemingly suffered little from that while improving its 2026 challenger, although Mekies acknowledges that the new facility should, in theory, provide the team with a competitive advantage.
"I think you're right. As much as the wind tunnel that we are using has ultimately been producing extraordinary results over the last few years, I think you are right in your assessment that it is most likely the oldest one on the grid", Mekies said when asked about the wind tunnel by Motorsport.com.
"As a result, if you jump to a state-of-the-art facility – and the team have really tried to design and now produce something that will put us back at the very first place in that area – of course you expect a competitive advantage from there."
Wind tunnels have become a major area of investment in F1. McLaren used Toyota’s in Cologne from 2010, but has been able to rely on its own facility since the summer of 2023 – something clearly linked to the team’s progress since then.
Aston Martin also has a state-of-the-art wind tunnel on its Silverstone campus, described by Adrian Newey as the best in the business, although the benefits have yet to be reflected in the on-track performances due to other limiting factors.
The latter also underlines that a new wind tunnel does not immediately guarantee an improvement and that it often takes time to fully understand the new tool and extract its maximum potential.
"So, [the competitive advantage] is not going to come up as soon as we switch on everything", Mekies admitted. "But it's certainly going to unlock potential and give the talented people that we have in the aero department another way to express their ideas."
When Verstappen mentioned the new wind tunnel as one of the less obvious factors giving him confidence for 2027, he immediately made clear that it would naturally not help with the initial development of the RB23, which is already under way. However, he added that it could contribute to further development of the 2027 car throughout the season.
When Motorsport.com asked Mekies whether he had an update on when Red Bull would actually be able to start using the new wind tunnel – which is located on the Milton Keynes campus, making things easier logistically as well – the Frenchman responded: "In terms of the timeline, it is not ready yet. It's something that will come online sometime during next season.
"Is it the first quarter, second quarter or third quarter? We will see. It will be based on how much time we need to get it online first, and then also to complete the calibration work. So, it will most likely be for the second part of the 2027 car and hopefully for most of the 2028 car."
Motorsport.com ·
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