F1 News: Adrian Newey Questions "Conservative" Red Bull RB20 Design Strategy

Adrian Newey's reflections on the RB20's design strategy reveal the complexities and strategic dilemmas faced by Red Bull in maintaining their dominance.

Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has recently shared his concerns about the possibly cautious strategy behind Red Bull's RB20 car design, following the RB19's remarkable success last season. He also speculated that Red Bull's innovative design approach might influence the competition in the 2024 F1 season.

Key Takeaways:

• Newey expects rival F1 teams to potentially mimic Red Bull's design after the RB19's dominant performance.
• The RB20 will continue the evolution of Red Bull's car designs, stirring debate over its cautious approach.
• Newey's dilemma lies in choosing between refining the existing design or exploring new, innovative concepts.

In a candid discussion on Red Bull Racing's Talking Bull podcast, Adrian Newey, the genius behind Red Bull's engineering success, revealed his mixed feelings about the upcoming RB20. Reflecting on the RB19's unexpected dominance, which led Max Verstappen to his third consecutive Drivers' Championship, Newey shared his anticipation and concerns for the next season's car design.

“RB18, the first car under the new regulations, I think we managed to get fundamentals right in terms of how we approached the design, the research process, the architecture of the car in terms of its layout and so forth.

“We managed to come out with a decent car that we then developed through ’22 and we obviously had a very strong second half of the season in ’22.

“In ’23, the second season of those new regulations, we completely expected the grid to close up.

“Last year took all of us – me most of all – by complete surprise. I really didn’t expect the domination that we had.

“This year, from what I understand, a lot of our rivals have taken a good look this time and I suspect there’ll be quite a few cars that look very similar to our car.”

With the 2024 season just a few weeks away, Newey anticipates that the groundbreaking design of the RB19 will lead other teams to adopt similar strategies. This prospect raises questions about Red Bull's approach to the RB20, particularly with the sport entering its third year under the current ground effect regulations.

“Our car will be very much a third evolution of the ’22 car.

“Last year’s car was an evolution of the ’22, the main points [of difference] being the normal winter development in terms of aerodynamics and some understanding on what we needed to do with suspension to try to improve the car as well, 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.

“Now what we don’t know, of course, is the third evolution too conservative while others have done something different? You just don’t know.”

Faced with the challenge of maintaining Red Bull's competitive edge, Newey acknowledged the internal debate about the direction of the RB20's development. 

“There is that [dilemma] of: should we have a group that goes out and looks at completely left-field ideas, or do we keep developing the route we’ve taken?

“We’re resource limited, so we can’t do everything. We can’t look at every avenue, so we’ve taken the approach of developing what we’ve got. Hopefully that’ll be the prudent thing.”

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