Red Bull‘s Regulatory Triumph: A Change Pushed by Mercedes Leads to Unprecedented Success for Red Bull Racing, culminating in 21 victories in 2023, eclipsing their remarkable achievement of 17 wins the previous year.
Red Bull Racing achieved an impressive 17 victories in 2022 and exceeded expectations with 21 wins in 2023. This progression was unforeseen, as Ben Waterhouse, the Head of Performance Engineering, acknowledged the team did not anticipate such success with their RB19, an evolution of the RB18 model.
“Looking back nearly two years, it was about understanding these new regulations and optimizing all different parameters,” Waterhouse stated. However, he also admitted to significant uncertainties.
“Theories about tires and aerodynamic mappings exist, but until you see them in reality, you can never be truly sure,” he explained.
Red Bull’s Regulatory Triumph : Superior Evolution
Red Bull maximized the potential of their 2022 F1 evolution: “After a full season with the RB18, we recognized it was a strong car but with many limitations. This gave us a clear direction for improvements to make the RB19 superior.”
“The RB19 started in a much stronger position. It’s no secret that the RB18 began overweight and struggled with this issue throughout the season. Therefore, significant time could be gained over the RB18, which we achieved with the RB19,” Waterhouse revealed.
He described the issues resolved in the previous model, citing changes made to the diffuser’s throat in the regulations – a move lobbied for by Mercedes in 2022: “In the RB18, there were problems like the floor’s edges regularly hitting the ground, causing damage to the floor components. So, from our perspective, adjusting the floor’s edge to avoid these issues was not a disaster. And, of course, it leads to a less aerodynamically sensitive area when not interacting closely with the ground.”
“From our view, we didn’t feel the worst in terms of porpoising, but perhaps we didn’t exploit ground contact as much. So, for us, it wasn’t a bad thing,” Waterhouse concluded.
Red Bull’s Regulatory Triumph Red Bull’s Regulatory Triumph
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