Red Bull is making big improvements to its aerodynamic testing by building a brand new wind tunnel at its Milton Keynes campus.

For many years, the team has used an old facility near Bedford that is over 70 years old, with the team boss Christian Horner even calling it "a Cold War relic." Even though the Austrian based outfit has made upgrades to keep the old tunnel functional, its age has become a challenge, especially when competing with other teams that use more modern setups.

The upgrade was necessary as Red Bull rivals have recently boosted their own facilities as well. McLaren opened a new wind tunnel in mid-2023 after relying on Toyota’s tunnel in Cologne for over a decade, while Aston Martin also built a modern wind tunnel at its new Silverstone base.

The Red Bull’s new wind tunnel is planned to be ready in 2026, and construction is currently three months ahead of schedule. Red Bull’s technical director, Pierre Wache, praised the progress but warned that unexpected delays could still happen due to the size of the project.

"With the building work and afterwards all the new machines you never know when it's coming, but we are ahead of the schedule at the moment," he told Motorsport.com.

"We are three months ahead of the plans.

"The guys are doing a very good job, but you never know if you get any delays somewhere else. It is a big project."

Wache also explained that while their current tunnel has been updated with modern equipment, it still has limits that make it harder to find small but crucial performance gains.

"It is the oldest wind tunnel in the sport. I even discussed it with Jos [Verstappen] the other day, that they already used this tunnel when he was there at Arrows," he said.

"It is an old tool that we updated. There is plenty of newer stuff inside, but we have some limitations. We know those limitations and we try to work around them, but that is clearly more difficult when you are looking for a small delta.

"It is why we invest in the new tunnel. We think we can have a benefit from the new one that we don't have with the current model."

Once the new facility is completed, it should help Red Bull develop its 2027 car, though it might start providing some benefits as early as 2026.