According to Paul Monaghan, Red Bull is straddling the line between doing nothing at all, which would be “wrong,” and making concept alterations to their F1 car, which would be “stupid.”
Since the start of 2022, the Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull F1 cars have won 38 of 44 Grands Prix, making them the dominant force in the ground-effect aerodynamic era.
Red Bull also achieved a first-ever one-two in the Drivers’ Championship when Max Verstappen led home Sergio Perez in the 2023 standings, giving the team back-to-back championship doubles.
Balance between ‘wrong’ and ‘stupid’
With Verstappen winning the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by an impressive 17 seconds and Red Bull winning 21 of the 22 races this past season, one could argue that the team could use this year’s RB19 on the grid for next year’s events, if not the championship.
Though chief engineer Monaghan acknowledges the upgrades might be little, team boss Christian Horner has told his competitors they are enhancing “all aspects” of the car ahead of the championship next year.
After all, discarding a thought that is obviously winning the race would be “stupid.” However, doing nothing at all would also be “wrong.”
“It would be wrong to just leave things as they are, because our adversaries are getting closer and closer,” he said as per Motorsport.com.
“But the rules are quite strict compared to what we experienced in previous years and with previous generations of cars, where we could do a little bit more and shake things up.
“It might not surprise you if I said that [the RB20] will be an evolution of the current car, because it would be a bit stupid to throw this concept into oblivion.
“But we also have to progress. We have to find time. The competition is on our backs and if they reach a milestone, we’d better reach an even bigger one.
“But it [the RB20] takes a lot of the lessons and benefits of the current car, and starting in Bahrain next year we will see if we have done a good job.”
Due to Red Bull’s budget cap restrictions, the RB20 was only given 63 percent of the windtunnel time granted, while the bottom finishers were given even more time. This meant that the championship winners, who were already eliminated, received less time than midfield finishers Aston Martin in P7.
“This has forced us to re-examine how effectively we perform testing in the wind tunnel environment and within CFD,” said Monaghan.
According to Horner, Red Bull won’t fully understand the penalty’s effects until the RB20 is tested on the track.
“Certainly, you’ve not seen the full impact yet because it obviously has compromised the amount of development that we’ve been able to do this year,” he explained.
“Thankfully, we came out with a very strong car at the beginning of the year and we’ve been able to apply most of that development time, from quite early in the season, to next year’s car. So, that’s been important.
