The pressure is on Red Bull’s rivals to produce much better cars for 2024 - because they will then be used as the basis for the teams’ next cars in 2025.
Auto Motor und Sport reports that moves are afoot to ban design and development preparations for the all-new rules in 2026 until January 1, 2025.
That only ramps up the onus on Red Bull’s struggling rival teams to get their car concepts right for the final two seasons of the existing ’ground effect’ regulations.
"In order to have the necessary firepower for the 2026 development in times of budget constraints, the 2025 model will probably not be a completely new design," admits Mercedes’ technical boss James Allison.
"Many parts will probably have to be carried over from 2024. The next two cars are therefore likely to be closely related. The development work that we are carrying out now is therefore doubly important in order to be well positioned for the next two seasons," he added.
Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack agrees with that approach.
"We will try to be as flexible as possible when building the chassis," he said. "We are definitely planning for 2024 with 2025 in mind."
Allison further explains that, after the current regulations cycle runs out after 2025, "the cards will be completely shuffled" on the Formula 1 grid.
"Everything that happened before will no longer count," he said. "Everyone will start with a blank sheet of paper."