On the first day of Formula 1 test drives for the 2024 season, Red Bull stunned the competition with its extraordinary design. Adrian Newey explained a little later: He had no choice but to (once again) dig deep into his bag of tricks.
The so-called “Zero Sidepod” concept was actually already considered a failure in Formula 1. Mercedes was the first and only team to try this radical design idea in 2022 – and fell flat on its face. Now the concept is back. At Red Bull. And it seems to be working great there. How can that be?
After a single day of testing, it is still too early to give an answer. It is also not yet possible to judge whether the RB20 will run as well on all race tracks as it did in Bahrain. Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey explained to “auto, motor und sport” why the team decided on the slim side pods in the first place.
Newey: Simple further development “wouldn’t have been enough”
“We knew that the other teams would copy us. If we had simply developed the car from last year, that wouldn’t have been enough,” said Newey, who was correct in his assessment. Most 24 series cars are similar to the 23 series Red Bull in many critical respects. While Ferrari, Mercedes and Co. have developed towards Red Bull when it comes to design, Red Bull has “evolved away”.
The big question is how big the Austrians’ lead will really be in the end. The 1.1 seconds that Max Verstappen was ahead of the competition on the first day of testing are not very representative, as Helmut Marko also had to admit.
How big is Red Bull’s lead really?
“The lead is not as big as it seems,” he told “auto, motor und sport” with reference to the different tires that were used on Wednesday. Red Bull was the only team there to put on brand new rubber in the afternoon.
Marko couldn’t and didn’t want to deny that the world champion team was ahead of everyone else. His assessment: “We believe that the current gap is around three tenths.” Translated, this means: Red Bull is still ahead, but at least not as uncatchable as it initially seemed. Nevertheless, the other teams also have to close this gap first. And that will be anything but easy.