Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Wache has a word of warning for any rivals seeking to copy aspects of the RB19 for the F1 2024 season.
As the RB19 proved the most dominant car of 2023 and, indeed, of F1’s entire history as it won all but one race to eclipse the win percentage of McLaren’s 1988 MP4/4, the Red Bull is likely to serve as the blueprint design for many other teams to try copying.
With robust regulations in place by 2024, groups that aren’t confident in their own concepts can simply look at the RB19 and copy the design as much as imaginable, but that wouldn’t possibly lead to simple success, Wache says.
While it might be tempting for other groups to simply try to copy Red Bull’s design by looking for images and recreating as much as possible, Wache believes that without an intelligent understanding of the design philosophy, those groups wouldn’t hide from anything.
“I think it is imaginable to copy it, but in each and every sector in the world, when it is technical, the ‘how’ is an aspect,” he told Autosport.
“The most important aspect is the ‘why’. If you don’t know why, you can copy whatever you want, but the most productive thing to do is to stick to what you know.
While copied designs might lead to an immediate improvement, the chances of an idea translating over to every other car aren’t fully guaranteed – another factor to take into account for competitors looking to follow another team’s idea.
“We’re copying some things as well,” he said. We may just be copying the thing, but you’re also inspired by what you see from others.
“This is like a Darwin effect. You see anything from others, you load concepts into it and you expand and expand your concept, strengths and abilities.
“But every time it has to be on the understanding aspect. If you just copy for copying’s sake, it doesn’t work.
“You have to have the wisdom and also what you have to achieve. If you don’t have the same characteristics of gold, it doesn’t go up at all.
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In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1. com, Red Bull boss Christian Horner said he suspects there will be many more RB19s on the grid in 2024.
“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery,” he said.
“I think that’s how Formula 1 works. So I’m sure that next year there will be several cars that will look like the RB19. “
While Red Bull aims to correct some of the RB19’s weaknesses with the RB20, adding to address its low-speed weakness in street circuit demonstrations, could the 2024 car end up being even more dominant?
“I would say there’s a lot of dominance over others as well,” Wache said.
“I don’t need to put pressure on others. . . We’ve done a smart job, but I’d say we still have a lot more to do. “
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