Adrian Newey has admitted he’s feeling trepidation ahead of the launch of the Red Bull RB20, due to not knowing how conservative the team has been.
Red Bull launches the RB20 on February 15, the successor car to its 2023 offering that has become the most dominant car in F1 history by winning every race on the 22-race calendar.
Despite having been utterly dominant throughout 2023, chief technical officer Adrian Newey believes that – on some occasions – it was Max Verstappen who made all the difference in order to eke out a win and admitted to feeling trepidation ahead of the new car’s launch.
In his appearance on Red Bull’s ‘Talking Bull’ podcast, Newey spoke at length about the launch of his new commission, as Red Bull also enters the automotive world with the RB17 hypercar, before turning his attention to the topic of Formula 1 in 2024.
Asked how he feels about the launch of the new F1 car in less than two weeks, Newey said he expects many of the competing machines to clearly resemble the RB19.
“I think we controlled the RB18, the first car to comply with the new regulations, to outline the basics in terms of how we approached the process of studies, the architecture of the car in terms of set-up and so on, and we controlled putting out a decent car that we will then evolve until 2022,” he said.
“Obviously, we had a smart time for part of the season in 2022.
“2023, the second season of those new regulations, we completely expected the grid to close up so, last year, it took all of us – me most of all – by complete surprise, we didn’t expect the domination that we had this year.
“This year, from what I understand, a lot of people, our rivals, looked smart this time and probably came. . . I suspect there will be some cars that will look a lot like ours. “
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While Red Bull is opting for evolution and not revolution for 2024, which is not the case for many rival teams, Newey admitted to feeling nervous about whether the new car will be too conservative or not as it sticks to the design philosophy it has chosen.
“Our car will be very much a third evolution of the ’22 car,” he said.
“So last year’s car was an evolution of the 22, and the main issues were the general progression of the winter in terms of aerodynamics, some understanding of what we want to do with the suspension to review and also the car and reduce the weight. because we never hit the weight limits at 22.
“This year’s car is the third evolution of the original RB18. Now what we don’t know, of course, is whether the third evolution is too conservative while others have done something different. You just don’t know.
“This is a complicated question. It’s this [question] of whether we have an organization that leans toward absolutely left-wing ideas. Or do we continue to expand the direction we’ve taken?
“We are limited in resources. So we can’t do everything, and we can’t do all avenues. So we’ve taken the technique of building on what we have. I hope it’s the prudent thing to do. “
But, while the team won the entire Singapore Grand Prix, Newey pointed out that Verstappen made the difference on several occasions as the Dutch driver clinched a third consecutive title.
“The grid is tight and the races are getting closer and closer,” he said.
“Austin, we were going to lose that. So we took a chance and got Max to make an extra stop. And Max did the rest. “
“In Las Vegas, to be absolutely honest, Charles in the Ferrari is probably the fastest driver; Max made the difference there, for sure. “
“So, by the end of the season, although we managed to win everything bar Singapore, everybody was snapping at our heels.
“So now you don’t need a lot of adjustments over the winter, so there’s a lot of pressure. “
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