Max Verstappen’s overall dominance this year has been daunting for his rivals, especially as Red Bull has deliberately limited the progression of the 2023 season.
And Red Bull has also suffered more restrictions in the wind tunnel following last year’s budget cap penalty.
La Gazzetta dello Sport now claims that Red Bull is preparing “radical” upgrades to its 2024 car, which will retain a “strong resemblance” to the existing car.
“But it will follow an aerodynamic concept that will differ from the current one,” claims correspondent Paolo Filisetti. “It seems that the vertical load will be generated and distributed in a radically different way than now.
“The floor will be painted in a different way, adopting a volumetric conformation very different from that of the Venturi channels,” says the Italian journalist.
“Adrian Newey, Pierre Wache and the aerodynamicists discovered several gaps in the RB19 that they had replaced little because they were due to the significant gap with the rivals.
“It was about incorporating all those adjustments into the new task to address the weaknesses of the RB19. In other words, as the warring parties fight to chase down Verstappen’s existing car, Red Bull seems keen to introduce countermeasures of the highest level. To dominate again,” Filisetti added.
Boss Horner, however, says it is evident that Red Bull’s main rivals are now apparently undermining the leading team.
“Given the stability of the regulations, next year this trend will continue and we will have a much more intense championship,” he reportedly told Bloomberg this week.
“The same can be said for 2025 before the regulation restarts in 2026,” Horner added. So we’re looking to improve, because our competition is going to copy some of the philosophy of our car, that’s for sure.
“We see that this is already starting to happen. It will be difficult to make the RB20 significantly better than the RB19,” he insists.