Adrian Newey admitted that Red Bull “struggled to make a profit” when developing its RB20 car.
The defending champions are still far ahead of the rest, so this year. Max Verstappen has won 3 of the 4 races contested and could have wiped the slate clean if he had not encountered a mechanical problem while leading the Australian Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez also supported his teammate by completing his second win in all 3 wins. Last time out, at Suzuka, they dominated thanks to their first upgrade package of the season.
But Red Bull is struggling to find spaces in which to make more innovations to its cars. That’s according to technical director Newey, who is looking forward to the next major update to F1’s regulations in terms of design.
Until then, he told RacingNews365, there isn’t much left to gain for Red Bull in terms of performance. He said, “From a design standpoint, I appreciate regulatory adjustments, as long as regulatory adjustments give moderate freedom. “
“I have to admit that when I first saw those existing regulations, I was depressed because they seemed incredibly prescriptive. Thankfully, there was a bit of easing towards the end. But in fact, once we were given the details, combined with this relaxation, there was a moderate amount of freedom within them; As you saw, at the beginning of 2022, there were many other solutions.
“They’re starting to converge now, but now we’re kind of, ‘Okay, we made some visual tweaks for this year’s car, but the principles are the same,’ so the gaps are narrowing internally. In our case, “We’re trying to place the gains in terms of aerodynamic gains at a monthly percentage, we’re definitely flattening out. “
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Newey’s designs have been hugely important to Red Bull’s good fortune in F1 and rumours are circulating that rival groups are hoping to push him away. He was spotted at Bologna airport last week, fuelling the hypothesis that he could be in talks with Italian giant Ferrari.
Before that, it was a mega financial offer from Lawrence Stroll to convince the 65-year-old to join the Aston Martin project. Amid all the rumors, Newey has hinted that he intends to stay where he is for the time being. .
He said: “I think as long as I continue to enjoy it and the team needs me, I will continue to do it for the time being. We will have to look at the long term; I don’t have a tendency to plan. “too far ahead. before. “
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