Red Bull's launch of a new F1 car is just around the corner, with the RB20 officially unveiled this Friday. But what do we know about the new Red Bull Racing?
Due to changes in technical regulations in 2022, Red Bull has been a dominant force in F1.
Two years ago, Red Bull won 17 of the 22 races with RB18 before taking a bigger advantage last year. Only Carlos Sainz could stop Austria from sweeping through the millennium, just like RB19, where Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez won 21 of the 22 Grands Prix.
Verstappen ended last season with seven straight wins and will continue that momentum at the season's opening Bahrain Grand Prix in early March.
But which car does he plan to use to achieve this? The new car will be unveiled on Friday, but some details about the RB20 have already emerged.
It is not surprising that the color scheme of the Red Bull will remain the same, starting with the bodywork of the car, which has only experienced a very small revolution in its history.
In a livestream earlier this month, Verstappen said the car "looks exactly the same".
We now also know what the new Red Bull Power engine sounds like, as sister team RB has given fans a preview of the noise – the engine will also be used in the leading Red Bull Racing team.
Red Bull Chief Designer Adrian Neuvy spoke on the team's 'Talking Bulls' podcast about the dilemma Red Bull faced when developing a new car.
"Last year's car was an evolution of the 2022 car, and the main point was of course the aerodynamic aspect, we continued to develop it in the winter and we needed to do something about the suspension to try to improve some understanding of the car, as well as to reduce the weight because we never reached the weight limit in 2022," he said. ”
This year's race car is the third evolution of the original RB18. Of course, what we don't know is that the third evolution is too conservative, or if someone else is doing something different? You just don't know. ”
At the beginning of January, it was reported that Red Bull had failed crash tests related to the front of the car.
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko responded humorously to the situation: "Ridiculous. If we had passed the first crash test, which would have been a problem, we would have failed long ago! ”
A failed crash test could actually be a warning to the competition, as Red Bull is once again pushing the limits within the current regulations.
Since the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix in mid-September last year, Red Bull Racing's focus has been entirely on 2024. Last year at Red Bull Racing did not see a major update, which allowed all the lessons learned and concepts to be preserved.
If ongoing development work takes place during the winter break, and the team does get a renewal in 2024, Red Bull could once again have a sizable edge over the competition.
In addition, the rules stipulate that leading competitors get less development time than their competitors, and in addition, there is a risk that Red Bull will no longer be able to make huge gains under regulation, allowing competitors to get closer and closer.
Team leader Christian Horner said: "We've seen competitors get closer and closer at different venues and I'm confident that the concepts will converge. ”
Consistent rules are always nerve-wracking, so I don't think we'll be able to repeat the season we've been through. But hopefully we can take the lessons of RB19 and apply it to RB20 and come up with a car that can defend those titles. ”
What exactly Red Bull Racing will look like, we'll have to wait until tomorrow to know. But for Verstappen, it didn't matter how the car looked, as long as it was fast enough to earn him a fourth World Championship title.