‘Disadvantaged’ Red Bull conceived RB18 “in a much shorter time” than F1 rivals

Red Bull have dominated F1 since new aerodynamic regulations were introduced at the start of 2022, producing back-to-back championship winners in the RB18 and RB19. 

That was despite being ‘disadvantaged’ due to continuing with the development of their 2021 car amid a fierce title battle against Mercedes as well as having to produce an all-new challenger for the new rules. 

According to Red Bull design guru Newey, Mercedes, and particularly Ferrari, switched their development onto the new breed of F1 cars earlier during the 2021 season. 

“19 is clearly a very close evolution of 18,” Newey told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast when asked what is the greatest strength of RB19. 

“18 actually was conceived probably in a much shorter time than most, if not all, our rivals, because in ‘21 we were in the big Championship battle with Mercedes and, possibly wrongly, because we were for the first time in many years with a shout for the championship, we decided to put quite a lot of effort into developing that car throughout the year, whereas Ferrari, for instance, took the opposite approach. 

“They weren’t in the Championship battle in ‘21, so they stopped developing the ‘21 car very early on and just concentrated on the design of the ‘22 car. Mercedes are somewhere in between that. 

"We kept developing for longer than either of those teams, so theoretically that puts us at a disadvantage.”

Nevertheless, Red Bull crushed the opposition in 2022, winning 17 of the 22 races as they stormed to both world championships.  

“I think what we did manage to do is get the architecture right,” Newey continued.

“When RB18 first came out in Bahrain last year, the Ferrari was certainly as quick, if not quicker in the early season, but we managed to get the fundamentals right and that gave us a good development platform.” 

And Red Bull have enjoyed an even more dominant 2023 campaign. They defended their constructors’ crown with their 15th victory from 16 races in Japan last time out, while Max Verstappen can clinch the drivers’ title at the next round in Qatar. 

Red Bull also set an unprecedented record of 15 consecutive victories until their winning streak was briefly halted by Ferrari in Singapore.