F1 | Racing Bulls to Milton Keynes: to use new Red Bull facilities

At the beginning of 2024, Racing Bulls started a new chapter in a story that, in reality, already has a long tradition behind it. Over the years it has changed identity several times, but behind the scenes there is also another revolution that is going on, namely the strategic reorganization of the staff and structures to be even more competitive in the future.

As reported last January, the Faenza base, the historic one of the team since it was still called Minardi, is slowly losing importance in favor of the English structures, where the team already has a base in Bicester. At the same time, however, there is also another plan in place, which will see Racing Bulls move permanently from Bicester to Milton Keynes, taking advantage of the facilities of the Red Bull campus.

Although the Faenza facility will continue to exist, as it still represents a key hub for the team, which still has many of the machines needed for the production and assembly of various elements in its Italian headquarters, moving to Milton Keynes will guarantee multiple benefits.

As revealed by Peter Bayer, CEO of Racing Bulls, the new English headquarters in Milton Keynes, just outside the infrastructure of the parent company Red Bull, will be double the size of the one in Bicester, with the permanent move taking place by 2025. This is also because the lease of the premises in Bicester would have expired soon anyway and, despite being offered the opportunity to purchase the building and the land, the team preferred to decline the offer.

“I have to applaud all the guys who work at Bicester, for the patience they have had and the commitment they have shown. Last year the owner called us and said the lease is about to expire, I want to sell the property, are you interested? And we said no, because it is too small for us,” Bayer explained in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, who stressed that the decision to reject the purchase offer was made based on a number of factors.

The first element is the size of the structure: currently in Bicester there are around 100 people working, in particular the aerodynamics department, so there is no space to attract new technicians, not only from the Italian headquarters in Faenza, but also from other teams. Moving to Milton Keynes will guarantee the chance to work in a much larger structure with the possibility of reorganising the departments and attracting new engineers to strengthen the technical group. “Now the team, also from a technical point of view, is in a phase of growth, so we need more space and we are also promoting this sort of freedom of movement between the offices”.

Racing Bulls F1 Team Wall

Photo by: Shameem Fahath

“We can’t do everything we want at the moment because we don’t have desk space in Bicester and people can come here. Moving to a bigger facility helps us. It allows for growth and allows for better interaction between the sites,” added technical director Jody Egginton in an interview with Motorsport.com.

Egginton rightly cited improved interaction between the sites as one of the aims of the move to Milton Keynes, but this theme expands on the potential impact on engineers. Racing Bulls has been using Red Bull facilities for several years, starting with the simulator, where the junior team drivers often go to gain experience.

However, even more fundamental is the use of the parent company’s wind tunnel, given that the one in Bicester has not been used for three years. Previously, in fact, Racing Bulls was the only team on the grid to use a wind tunnel in which models of up to 50% of the real one could be used, which put them at a disadvantage compared to their opponents. For this reason, in 2021 it was decided to move to the same structure used by Red Bull which, on the contrary, could also house the 60% scale models, the maximum allowed by the regulations, guaranteeing more precise measurements.

The Wind Tunnel offices in Bicester

Photo by: AlphaTauri

“Also, the wind tunnel that is in our Bicester facility we haven’t used for three years because we are using the models at 60%,” Egginton added. Red Bull itself, however, will build a new wind tunnel, the plans for which have already been approved. It is no secret that the facility currently in use by the Anglo-Austrian team in Bedford is among the oldest in Formula 1, which is why Red Bull has unlocked new funds to build a wind tunnel that will be ready in 2026, in Milton Keynes, among other places.

“Even though we are better than the others in some aspects, there are other areas that we still need to improve as facilities. The wind tunnel is one of them and that is why we started to build a wind tunnel for the next few years. The company gave us the opportunity to change it and invest by giving us money. We are very grateful for that, because I think it is an investment in performance,” Pierre Waché told Motorsport.com, highlighting the data correlation problems experienced recently. In fact, Red Bull is also investing in improving its simulation tools, also because these are aspects that Max Verstappen has been complaining about for some time now.

With the lease with Bicester expiring soon and also being aware of Red Bull’s plans, the choice to move to Milton Keynes was almost natural for Racing Bulls, not only for a question of size and the opportunity to attract additional staff, but also to take advantage of the new facilities of the parent company, as Bayer added: “For us it was a unique opportunity to say: ‘You know what, let’s move because Red Bull are also building a new wind tunnel in Milton Keynes and it will make life easier for everyone’, so we said to ourselves it was a unique opportunity.

Clearly this will guarantee multiple benefits: first of all, using a cutting-edge structure, but also the fact that the movements and any modifications of the models to be brought to the wind tunnel will be much quicker. Furthermore, this will allow to further improve the synergy with Red Bull, with the staff of the two teams working closely together.