Red Bull Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey has explained how the “subtle” changes to the team’s RB20 Formula 1 car are responsible for its continued advantage.
Red Bull’s dominance has continued into the third season of the latest ground effect regulations, with Max Verstappen leading successive 1-2s to open the campaign.
The Austrian outfit’s 2024 challenger sparked attention when it was launched due to the striking alterations that were evident compared to its title-winning predecessor.
A slim sidepod inlet has drawn similarities to the ‘zeropod’ solution Mercedes abandoned last term, while it has taken inspiration from the marque with an engine gulley.
However, Newey believes that more minute details on the RB20 have been behind the reigning champions remaining ahead of its rivals and their revamped car concepts.
“The underlying architecture of the car is the third-generation evolution of what started as the RB18, where, apart from the radiators, we carry everything: layout of the front suspension, the rear suspension, the gearbox, the casing – it’s a third evolution of the RB18,” Newey explained.
“The bits that are visible, that have caused quite a lot of attention, obviously we’re pursuing aerodynamic gains there. The visual change is actually much larger than the performance change you get from that. The other, much more subtle bits that people haven’t noticed are probably responsible for a bigger gain.”
Red Bull looked on course to achieve a historic clean sweep last season until a disastrous weekend in Singapore saw both RB19 cars fail to start inside the top 10.
Amid Verstappen noting slow-speed cornering as a weakness of last season’s car, Newey has documented how Red Bull strived to create a more rounded package.
“What we’ve tried to achieve is a car that is reasonably well-suited to all circuits,” he added.
“I think typically, last year, the circuits that we had less of an advantage on were the maximum downforce street tracks.
“Singapore, obviously, we famously made a bit of a mess of and underperformed to what we could have achieved. We could have certainly achieved podiums there had we got our act together a bit better.
“But it’s certainly true to say that those circuits are the ones that we probably have less advantage on. As long as we’re not disastrous on them, then maybe that’s good enough.”
