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Horner reveals Red Bull update plans

Christian Horner says Red Bull won’t have any major updates before F1's summer break, citing concerns over hitting the sport's budget cap.

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner says his team won't be bringing any major updates to Grands Prix before F1's summer break. The RB18 has proved the class of the field in 2022 so far, winning seven of the season's nine races, including the last six in a row, and Horner said there would be no significant evolution of the car over the next four races. "I wouldn't say anything big," Horner told media including RacingNews365.com when asked if Red Bull had any significant upgrade packages incoming. "It's very modest evolution, components are introduced as components come to the end of their life, so it's a very different form of development to what you would see in previous years."

Horner still keen to raise budget cap

Horner once again spoke of his desire to see the FIA raise F1's budget cap, having previously warned that global rises in inflation will make it impossible for most teams to stay within the permitted limit of $140 million. "I know the FIA are looking at it together with [Liberty Media], because nobody could have expected that kind of inflation," said Horner, who had previously referenced that inflation in the U.K. is predicted to hit 11 per-cent later this year. "Perhaps I'm the one that talks out the most about it, but our problems are not the biggest in this area. "Mercedes employ more people, they have higher salaries within their group than ourselves. "Ferrari [are] another very big team with high costs, and when you hear of teams in the mid-grid that are also going to be in breach of the cap, that [had previously been] pushing for the cap to be lower, I think it shows that it's not about development being the biggest contributor to these costs. "It's just the fixed costs of going racing with freight with energy with utilities with the supply of components. It's just gone stratospheric."

Budget cap increase justified by rising revenue, says Horner

Horner added that F1's increased revenue in recent years further justifies the proposed increase to the budget cap. "I think there just needs to be a common sense application because the situation could well get worse," said Horner. "We're also seeing revenues growing significantly with the deals that Formula 1 is signing. "Even the last team in the championship has got more than 50 per-cent of their costs covered by revenue into the sport. "So it's not a cash issue. It's purely an accounting, regulatory issue."

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