Last Updated on January 7 2024, 9:16 am
The question on everyones lips is whether the field can reel in Red Bull’s advantage as the 2024 Formula One campaign draws even nearer. Though Max Verstappen and the all conquering RB19 were not as dominant when it came to qualifying as they were in the races with the world champion only claiming 12 of the 22 Grand Prix pole positions.
The Red Bull cars in the Sebastian Vettel four years of dominance worked differently from the RB19. Vettel would regularly claim pole position and then disappear into the distance at the start of the race. The RB19 and Max had more overtaking to do, though the slippery Red Bull car was quicker than the rest down the straights when DRS was deployed.
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One area the team are targeting to improve is around the slow speed corners, where Ferrari with its better low downforce traction performed better giving the Scuderia seven pole positions at circuits where this factor grew in importance.
Though the trade off will always be tyre wear and the Ferrari of 2023 was prone to eating tyres whereas the RB19 managed longer stints without the same amount of degradation.
F1 Teams are on the whole highly secretive during the winter months when they are refining and assembling the car for the following season. Though with regulations stable, a number of revelations have come from various headquarters as to how they are making progress.
Ferrari have been candid claiming their ‘project 676’ will see around 95% of the car’s components redesigned and Toto Wolff says Mercedes will build a whole new car.
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Red Bull prioritise ‘evolution’ of RB19
Red Bull by comparison are adopting the same philosophy as they did last year and the RB20 will be an evolution of its predecessor sharing many of the same components.
News broke recently that the foundation block of Red Bull’s 2024 challenger had failed its FIA crash test. These are designed to ensure the monocoque in which the driver sits absorb sufficient energy during a crash to make it survivable for the driver.
Of course failing a crash test is not ideal given the design time and cost which has been put in. Only when the chassis is finalised can a team be certain of the design and construction of the rest of the components and associated bodywork.
When the RB20 failed its crash test, there would have been uncertainty over whether the rest of the design can be utilised, given when addressing the weakness it may require other bolt on solutions from the original design.
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Marko responds to crash test failure
Yet Dr, Helmut Marko has now responded to the news of the Red Bull crash test failure suggesting it was a necessary evil for the design team to go through. Further, a first time pass he argues means the team is not pushing the boundaries far enough and may leave some performance on the table.
Asked by F1-insider if he was concerned when hearing the news, Marko replied: “Ridiculous. If we had passed the first test, there would be a problem. Then we would have done a bad job.”
Christian Horner revealed one of the big steps forward from 2022 to 2023 was binging down the weight of the RB19 which was believed to be operating close to the minimum FIA weight of 798kg. Each ten kilo reduction brings around 0.3 seconds in lap time but teams will target to build a car below the weight limit if possible.
This allows them put place ballast in strategic locations around the car to bring it up to weight which gives the driver more options when they feel the balance of the car isn’t right.
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Ferrari ahead of Red Bull
Red Bull will clearly be targeting this and the result is they’ve pushed the boundaries too far with the amount of weight they’ve shaved off the monocoque and crash structure.
The team will then work back to revise their design and strengthen it before they take the FIA crash test a second time. Marko’s argument that its a necessary evil to ensure the team knows where the limits are, but as suggested earlier this does shorten the time available for the redesign of other components dependent on the final chassis design.
A source close to Ferrari revealed yesterday, “By mid-December the first chassis of the new single-seater had already been built and all the components were being assembled – ahead of a very tight schedule,” as reported by RN365.
Clearly the Scuderia have homologated their chassis and are now ahead of Red Bull in what was described a “very tight schedule” where the final details are ironed out and production ready for the flyaway races is complete.
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Ferrari have a whole new floor
Red Bull Racing in some way have to take more risks than their competitors if they are to maintain the big advantage they showed in 2023. The rest of the field in a way needs to just utilise the hard work done by Red Bull when producing the RB19 and they should close the gap to the world champions significantly.
With Ferrari making big changes to their car the big wins for them come from a revised concept given the architecture of the SF-23 constrained them from making certain improvements.
“The central section of the floor, which extends to the centre of the diffuser on the 676, will be decidedly narrower,” reports RN365.
“This frees airflow in favour of an increase not only in the effectiveness of its extraction, but also in the efficiency of the rear wing – specifically at the lower profile level (beam wing).”
Red Bull ‘less to do’
Red Bull by way of contrast will have less to do when their chassis is finalised given the evolution route of development they are taking for the coming season.
Little is known of how the other teams are progressing, and while the F1 car launches in February will give an indication of significant changes, for example in the suspension, it will be when the cars hit the asphalt in Bahrain for testing in just 45 days time when we’ll know for sure how the new designs look and perform.
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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.
