Last Updated on December 29 2023, 10:04 am
Red Bull Racing came close for the first time to be the only team ever to record a perfect Formula One season. Winning 21 of the 22 races was the largest tally ever recorded by a single competitor and despite their being less races back in 1988 McLaren too delivered a year of racing where they won all but one Grand Prix.
Despite the woeful performance of its privateer TAG engine, McLaren in 1987 had finished the championship second which persuaded both Ayrton Senna and Honda to commit for the following year.
The elusive “perfect season”
McLaren gambled by entering the season with a turbo powered unit whole a number other teams were switching to the 1989 mandated normally aspirated engine. The turbo competitors in ’88 were restricted on fuel to 150 litres while the rest had an unlimited supply. This saw McLaren drivers hampered at times forcing them to go into extreme conservation mode towards the end of a race.
Yet with 15 pole positions from 16 races, 15 wins and ten 1-2 finishes, the MP4/4 became the iconic standard which no other Formula One car has ever reached – until the RB19.
Ironically it was a Ferrari which prevented the McLaren clean sweep at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. With just two laps to go, Senna crashed out of the lead – Prost had earlier suffered a rare engine failure – leaving Gerhard Berger to claim an emotional victory for the Scuderia, the first since the death of Enzo.
For Red Bull it was a Ferrari in Singapore that ruined their perfect season, with Carlos Sainz bravely towing the McLaren of Lando Norris along to defend from the charging Mercedes pair on fresh tyres.
Signs of RB19 weakness
Yet was the loss of Red Bull’s perfect season such a surprise?
The signs of Red Bull’s weakness were evident as early as the fourth race of the season. Charles Leclerc took pole position in Baku from Verstappen and was almost 0.2 seconds quicker than the world champion. Sergio Perez still on a high from his win in Saudi Arabia was third.
While it was arguably the timing of a safety car which cost Verstappen the win and Sergio came through to take the chequered flag in front, the nature of the circuit in the Azerbaijan capital did not suit the RB19.
Las Vegas similarly appeared not to suit the Newey designed monster wining machine though again Verstappen won out in the end and Max Verstappen now identifies there was a weakness he knew about in the all conquering RB19.
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He blames the reduced aero development time penalty placed on the team for breaching the cost carp limit in 2021, which cost Red Bull the perfect season.
When asked what the engineers need to focus on to improve the new RB20 for next season, Verstappen is quick to conclude, “Mainly I think just street circuits and low-speed kerbing,” he told Motorsport.com.
“These kind of things, I think we are not the best at the moment.”
Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Wache appeared to confirm Verstappen’s assessment but at the same time was wary that trying to dial these out could affect the best qualities of the RB19.
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“The team sees that same weakness, maybe in a different perspective than Max because Max is [a driver], but it’s more or less summarised quite well where we have to work for next year,” said Wache.
“Low-speed is clearly [one area]. 90-degree corners we are not the best, as you could see in quali in Baku and a different track [type there]. Singapore also was not a fantastic one.
“And also, our capacity to ride the kerbs and the bumpy tracks is also not perfect and we have to improve this area.”
Bumpy circuits are more difficult to account for in the modern era of Formula One given much of the downforce is derived from underneath the floor of the cars. Was the low air pressure created sucks the car onto the track, a bump breaks this ‘air seal’ causing the car to bounce.
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Raising the ride height doesn’t help because that reduces the downforce of the car and its overall pace.
Mercedes paid the price in 2023 for failing to grasp this concept and their car design was looking to exploit clever ways of creating more downforce with a car running further above the ground.
The RB19 clearly mastered the design problem set by the FIA for 2023 but were they to go chasing the areas of weakness they experienced, this could lead to compromises inures of strength.
“In our system and in this business, you never have nothing for free,” continues Wache. “You can improve the overall potential of something, but most of the time it’s also affecting some other aspect of the car.
“[So], we have to be very careful not to destroy what we built in terms of strengths. It’s what we are trying to do – improve our weaknesses without compromising too much the strengths we have.”
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The extra 10% reduction in aero testing time inflicted for 12 months on Red Bull Racing has now expire and given how far ahead the RB19 was of the competition, the world champion team was able to switch its focus late summer to the design of their challenger for 2024.
The incremental time created by Red Bull to evolve their car further into 2024 could be the difference between staying ahead of the field or being caught by Ferrari or McLaren. Even so Christian Horner says it feels “inevitable” that the chasing pack will start to close up on them.
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Perfect season yet to be completed
“We’ve got stable regulations,” he said, when asked if Red Bull have found another big step with the RB20.
“And so, of course, you start to hit the top of the curve where the gains that you’re making become smaller and smaller. I think that it’s evolution, not revolution.
“We’re into diminishing returns now. But there are two more years of these regulations,” observed the Red Bull boss.
Whilst being no consolation to the other team bosses who protested the Red Bull punishment for their cost cap breach was too small, the penalty from the FIA might have been the difference between the team from Milton Keynes delivering the perfect season – something no one could ever beat no matter how hard they tried.
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
