F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Newey says 'subtle' changes key to Red Bull progress

Red Bull might be dominating Formula 1 at the moment thanks to the technical genius of Adrian Newey, but the designer of the RB20 insists that the squad must continue to make progress - especially in the less obvious areas.

Given the team's domination of F1 in 2023, many pundits had expected Red Bull to take it easy this season and make few changes to a winning formula.

Instead, Newey has surprised them with some very obvious upgrades to this year's contender, which looks a lot closer to last year's 'zero sidepod' design tried out but eventually dropped by Mercedes.

Such a striking change has been the talk of the paddock, but Newey says that it's the less obvious elements under the skin of the car that are making the biggest contribution to the team's flying start to the new season.

"The visual change is actually much larger than the performance change you get from that", he told the F1 Nation podcast this week.

“The bits that are visible, that have caused quite a lot of attention, obviously we’re pursuing aerodynamic gains there," he acknowledged. "The other, much more subtle bits people haven't noticed are probably responsible for a bigger gain.

“The underlying architecture of the car is the third-generation evolution of what started as the RB18," he continued.

"That's where, apart from the radiators, we carry everything: the layout of the front suspension, the rear suspension, the gearbox, the casing, [so the RB20] is a third evolution of the RB18."

Red Bull won all but one race last year with 19 victories for Max Verstappen and two for his team mate Sergio Perez. But it's clear that missing out on a clean sweep by losing in Singapore to Ferrari's Carlos Sainz still rankles.

“What we’ve tried to achieve is a car that is reasonably well-suited to all circuits,” Newey confirmed. “Typically, last year the circuits that we had less of an advantage on were the maximum downforce street tracks.

“Singapore, obviously, we famously made a bit of a mess of and underperformed to what we could have achieved," he admitted. "We could have certainly achieved podiums there had we got our act together a bit better.

"It's certainly true to say that those circuits are the ones that we probably have less advantage on," he said. "But as long as we're not disastrous on them, then maybe that's good enough.”

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Aston Martin says performance shortfall led to Fallows exit

Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough has shed some light on why the team’s former…

6 hours ago

FIA clamps down on plank loophole after Red Bull complaint

The FIA has issued a pivotal Technical Directive to F1 teams ahead of this weekend’s…

7 hours ago

F1 drivers blindsided by race director Wittich’s sudden exit

The abrupt removal last week of FIA race director Niels Wittich with just three races…

9 hours ago

McLaren relaxes ‘papaya rules’: Norris and Piastri free to race

Oscar Piastri has confirmed that McLaren’s team orders—dubbed the "Papaya Rules"—have been largely relaxed, giving…

10 hours ago

Cheers to the forever young pure racer Jacques Laffite

The forever young Jacques Laffite turns 81 today, but the years haven't aged this pure…

11 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Wednesday's build-up in pictures

The neon lights of Las Vegas are set to illuminate the Formula 1 world once…

12 hours ago