Why Red Bull’s surprising 2024 car should scare its F1 rivals

Red Bull has flipped the script in F1 launch season by revealing a surprisingly different 2024 car that has some ideas its first rival Mercedes has now abandoned this was a handy time for reel to Buck its usual trend of not showing a real car at its launch as seeing some striking rb20 details helped prevent it from being overrun by the controversy surrounding team principal Christian Herer hoer is the subject of an external investigation started by Red Bull's parent company in the wake of serious allegations he's continuing in his role while this takes place and was front and center at the car launch we'll explain how that played out a little later but for now let's focus on the car because whether by accident or design the surprise inclusion of a real rb20 with lots of obvious new details meant the focus of this car launch actually stayed for the most part on the car so real was this rb20 that the Red Bull technical team clearly wanted some of its details to be hidden as much as possible the floor was unsurprisingly a bland dummy at the launch the diffuser was blanked off and there was a wall of people people blocking the rear end in general overseen by chief engineer Paul Monahan Red Bull is bidding for a third straight Championship Double in 2024 and its rb20 has some fascinating ideas it might have adopted from Mercedes just as its old rival abandons them to conform to the trends Red Bull had previously set the car has run on track in a Silverstone Shakedown and we've seen it in person for ourselves what's new on the rb20 could be summarized as Red Bull moving away from several major Trends it started in this rules era just as other teams including Mercedes flock to follow the old direction that hasn't gone unnoticed by Red Bull Herer pointed out that a few cars look similar in theme to what we launched last year While others are following herner says Red Bull's approach has been quite aggressive in certain areas to pursue new developments and the car has some absolutely Exquisite detail the most eye-catching at least to us are the bits that resemble parts of last year's Mercedes that team has now abandoned the changes start from the front front where the red bull nose tip now intersects the second plane on the front wing it had previously been fixed to that element creating a gap for air to flow through to the central section and the entry to the underfloor we've seen others like Ferrari move in that direction for 2024 but the rb2s nose which has a panel that makes us think a modification could be swapped in next week at testing now connects to the main plane and the tip is wide and flat further back is where things get more interesting though and if the back half of the car looks familiar it's because the side pod Inlet shape is similar to the initial Mercedes 2023 concept and there are big 2023 Mercedes style shoulders on the engine cover there's a fundamental shift in side pod design here almost everybody has incorporated the underbite style Inlet Red Bull took to aggressive letter box shaped lengths on it rb19 with the lower part of the inlet extended further forward now it's the top part that is most Exposed on the rb20 creating a big surface beneath the wing mirrors underneath that is a tall vertical side pod Inlet and the side pod is slimmer than before with an even bigger initial undercut the rb20 also has big cannons that run back from the Halo along the engine cover it looks like there might be a narrow sunken section between the shoulders and the very top of the engine cover behind the air intake interestingly this comes just as Mercedes has switched to a more conventional side pod and engine cover profile and Sergio Perez probably summed it up best when asked if he was surprised the car seems to have Mercedes Design Elements and replied yes a bit given things like the vertical radiator Inlet and hulking engine cover shoulders are very 2023 Mercedes it's possible seeing that car last year triggered a thought that led red bullt in a direction of reciting and shrinking the radiators and Associated packaging as much as possible but is it really Mercedes inspired or have Red Bull's own thoughts just coincidentally created something similar because there are some differences too for instance a vertical Inlet is nothing new just rare for this generation of car and red bulls has actually enhanced the side pod undercut in a way that pictures don't do justice according to our Man Mark Hughes who has seen the rb20 in person at the launch the radiator packaging is low in the side pod which probably explains why the outside edge bulges less and is of flatter shape than last year but the side pods are still serving an aerodynamic purpose they just don't look like they house as much as before as for the Cannons they could just be the obvious cooling route once you've made the radiator Inlet vertical but unlike what Mercedes had Red Bull's cannons slop downwards very steeply at the back of the engine cover which could be aerodynamic Gold Dust for rooting the air flow to the diffuser and rear wing those cannons also bring the engine cover Bodywork up high at the back of the car and combined with the way the Slimmer side pods wash downwards to leave a lot of space for the airflow feeding the back of the floor and the rear wi area from the side there's clearly a lot of work that's gone into the rb20 and its choices even surprised its own drivers at first Perez said that given the dominance of last year you wouldn't imagine us changing the concept that much and called it really Brave World Champion Max V stappen said he first saw the drawings of the rb20 at the last race of 2023 and thought wow that's quite different but called it a controlled aggressive approach and not one the team has a question mark over it fits with Red Bull being a step ahead of the others and finding limitations in existing design sooner than moving to New solutions that Rivals don't even realize yet will be needed this car appears to have moved the game on everyone was migrating towards the Old Red Bull and now there's a new one which looks like more than just an evolution and impressed another of our team on the ground at the launch Ed straw I had the privilege of being a few meters from the Red Bull rb20 when it was unveiled today here at Middleton ke Red Bull's base and although I had some idea what to expect from the Spy shots I was impressed by just how much red bull has done with this car they said it was an evolutionary car building on the success of last year and it absolutely is but what's really impressive is this team has come up with ideas had the creative thinking to explore new opportunities change the side pod body work in the approach to really create more performance what's very very clear is Red Bull has tried to and perhaps has taken the game on this year with the Red Bull rb2 this car might well make rival teams think their fears about Red Bull's 2024 car were well founded Red Bull was already The Benchmark after its dominant 2023 Mercedes boss Toto wolf said at his team's launch that it needs to be realistic about beating a team that is a fair chunk ahead on top of its domination Red Bull's success came despite minimizing the development of its rb9 through the year and McLaren boss Andrea Stella is adamant that means Red Bull will keep en ening an advantage given the focus it was able to give the rb20 last year the cost cut reductions infamously breached by Red Bull in 2021 and this superiority of the car meant Red Bull saw no need to produce a constant stream of updates through 2023 there were just two major Bodywork changes both around the radiator Inlet area and both came before the summer break in aaban in April and Hungary in July Stella's point is that massive upgrades not appearing on the rb19 didn't necessarily mean Red Bull wasn't enjoying a fruitful time developing the car redel wasn't compromised by its own lack of cash or limitations with production capacity but it did have the cost cap limitation to consider and the harshest aerodynamic testing restrictions of any team so when it was pleasantly surprised by how big its Advantage was in the first phase of 2023 Red Bull realized it could divert its time and money to 2024 it still allowed Red Bull to develop its understanding throughout the season even when the car's 2023 specification remained fairly static then released its new ideas on the launch spec of the rb2 McLaren CEO Zack Brown fears that this might result in an unpleasant surprise for all of us in 2024 Red Bull launched its new car amid the ongoing controversy surrounding team boss Horner who made his first public appearance since Red Bull's parent company ordered an independent investigation into allegations about ha's conduct herner has denied the allegations and remains in his role as Red Bull Racing Team principal and CEO while this is carried out that's why he was at the launch and was an active spokesperson it made him the elephant in the room even though there was a big attempt to make out that it's just business as usual while the new car was a big enough talking point on its own to limit Horner's presence from being a total distraction it is still a massive talking point the investigation process started over a week ago and is too complex to rush just so that it can line up conveniently with an F1 schedule that's why hor was there at the launch talking about Red Bull's phenomenal history and how the future is very bright even with this Saga happening in the background he had media sessions and TV interviews around the launch with a small catch Rebel said no questions would be allowed about the investigation it wasn't a total gag order so more general questions about the situation could be slipped in and Herer did address the fact the investigation is happening he even admitted there has inevitably been a distraction but was for the most part insisting it has been business as normal the Horn of saga means Red Bull does face a potentially huge destabilizer nothing that's happened so far should have taken Rebel's eye off the ball with the rb20 but any cracks that start to to emerge in the team's foundations could make things more complicated the allegations and the fact Rebel is taking them so seriously have sparked quite wild speculation about if Herer will survive in his job whether there is a decisive power struggle going on in the background and that there may even be a rift with the V stappen Camp it's worth pointing out that Max Ven and Herer played all of this down at the launch Herer said the only thing that focuses everybody's attention is the car and described Rebel as very United and one team including the shareholders in that and Ma said his relationship with hor is like always even brushing off an attempt by a Red Bull press officer to shut down a question about the speculation to get that answer across the launch proved that it's easy to say it's business as usual for Red Bull but will that be the reality if this hangs over the team Beyond testing and into the start of the [Music] season

Channel: THE RACE

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Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, F1 news, F1 latest, F1 updates, F1 explained, The Race, the-race.com, grand prix, f1 2024, red bull, red bull launch, red bull 2024, rb20, max verstappen, sergio perez, christian horner, horner, red bull 2024 launch, rb20 launch, red bull analysis, f1 car analysis, f1 analysis, f1 red bull

Id: NK793U-cki0

Length: 9min 55sec (595 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 15 2024