“Is it too conservative?” Red Bull guru Adrian Newey questions new RB20 F1 car
Red Bull chief technical off꧂icer Adrian Newey has expressed some potential concerns abou𓆉t this year's RB20.
Red𝓰 Bull design guru Adrian Newey is ♕unsure whether his team have been potentially “too conservative” with their RB20 F1 car for 2024.
Red Bull will be the final team to unveiღl t𝔉heir new challenger ahead of pre-season testing on February 15.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit dominated F1 2023, ♏winning 21 of the 2🍌2 races.
Unexpectedly, the new RB2🦋0 is a “third evolution” of the car that saw Max Verstappen win his second d🍸rivers’ crown in 2022.
Speaking on the team's T🅷alking Bulls podcast, Newey was wary about othꦆer teams being more radical with their car designs and finding an advantage.
“Our car, it's very much a third evolution of the 22 car,” Newey said. “Last year's car was an evolution of '22 in its main points being of course, the normal winter development in terms of aerodynamics, some understanding on what we needed to do with suspension to try to improve the car as we𒐪ll, and getting weight out of it, because we never got down to the weight limit in '22.
“This year's car is the third evolution of🃏 that original RB18. What we don't know, of course, is the third evolution too conservative, while others have 𒁃done something different? You just don't know.”
Newey admitted that Red Bull’s 2023 dominance was a “complete surprise” given that the second year of൲ new regulations tends to see teams converge.
"RB18, the first car, to the new regulations, I think we managed to get fundamentals right in terms of how we approached the research process, the architecture of the car, ♛in terms of i༺ts layout, and so forth," he added.
"We managed to come out with a decent car that we then developed through❀ '22. And obviously, we had a very strong second half of the season in '22.
"[In] '23, so now the second season of those new regulations, we completely expected the𓂃 grid to close up. So last year, took all of us, me most of all, by complete surprise. We rea🔯lly didn't expect the domination that we had.
"Th🦩is year, then, from what I understand, a lot of people, a lot of oꦕur rivals have kind of taken a good look this time, and I suspect there'll be quite a few cars that look very similar to our car."
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storyli🌜nes, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiasedꦰ reporting.
