How Red Bull made its most complete F1 car yet

Those hoping for a modicum of convergence in the second year of Formula 1’s new technical package, and a more competitive title battle after Red Bull grew in strength throughout 2022, will have been left slightly disappointed by 2023’s opening races.

Relative to its early position as a thorn in Red Bull’s side at the start of last year, Ferrari appears to have regressed. Mercedes appears slightly closer to the sharpest end of the F1 grid but has already lost faith in its W14, and it’s been left to the upwardly mobile Aston Martin to offer the closest challenge to the 2022 title winners.

But there’s still a gaping chasm between Red Bull and the rest. Max Verstappen looks to be on course for a third title in a row, although team-mate Sergio Perez still has designs on an admittedly unlikely bid for the crown. As early as the Bahrain season-opener, Mercedes’ George Russell cut a rather defeated figure when considering the other teams’ chances of victory this year, and it rather underlined the performance advantage with which the Milton Keynes squad kicked off the season. Wins in the first three races have been almost routine; 1-2 finishes in the opening two races were followed by Verstappen’s first victory at Albert Park, where he had way too much pace for Mercedes’ some-time leader Lewis Hamilton to contend with.

As much as people tend to abhor dominance, and one-dimensional title ‘fights’ are never particularly good for viewing figures, it is ultimately up to the other teams to close the gap. Red Bull has quite simply done the best job of anybody with its 2023 car, recognising the importance of simultaneously working on its weaknesses from last season while also attempting to improve the magnitude of the inherent strengths with which the RB18 came to play last year.

At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Hamilton said as much following his decision not to defend too hard from the recovering Verstappen, who was ascending from 15th on the grid after being hamstrung by a driveshaft issue in qualifying. The seven-time world champion reckoned that Mercedes’ dominance of old paled in comparison to the advantage Red Bull has over the current field. “I’ve definitely never seen a car so fast, especially compared to the rest,” he mused in Jeddah. “I think when we were fast, we weren’t that fast. I don’t know how or why, but he came past me with some serious speed. I didn’t even bother to block because it was just a massive speed difference.”

Verstappen kicked off the 2023 F1 season leading a dominant Red Bull 1-2 in Bahrain as a sign of what is to come

Photo by: Erik Junius

Speaking ahead of the Australian GP, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner accepted Hamilton’s compliment but, amid the predictions among the clairvoyancy dilettantes that Red Bull would execute a clean sweep of race wins, said there were too many races left to even consider that as a possibility. “Well, it’s obviously very flattering, particularly considering some of the cars that Lewis has driven in recent history,” Horner responded.

“We’ve got a great car, the RB19 is a fantastic starting point for the season and to have achieved two 1-2 finishes in the first two races is more than we could have ever expected. But we’re conscious it’s a very long season. There’s still 21 [before Australia] races to go and six sprint races. And we’re conscious of big updates coming for others in the coming weeks as we head back to Europe. So there’s still a lot to do and an awfully long way to go.

“We see that some teams have made a step forward, some haven’t. But that’s going to change from circuit to circuit, venue to venue. I’ve always said it’s going to take three or four races to get a real pattern as to what is the actual formbook for the season.”

While last year’s RB18 developed into the best package of 2022 after kicking off the season slightly behind Ferrari, the new car boasts all the old machinery’s greatest hits. Plus, crucially, it is no longer burdened by an overall weight problem

And Horner’s right. It remains unknown what the effect of its cost-cap punishment will truly be. The 10% reduction in aerodynamic testing was applied at the latter end of last year, and so wouldn’t affect the design of the 2023 car quite so much given the core RB19 concept was already set in stone. But it could impact development. Horner has already spoken about the need for his aerodynamicists to use their wind tunnel and CFD testing capabilities efficiently to overcome the deficit, especially considering the cost-cap penalty comes on top of reductions under F1’s ‘sliding scale’ system. For example, Red Bull has 37% less aerodynamic testing than Aston Martin until 30 June.

PLUS: How much will Red Bull's aero testing penalty really hurt?

That means that, for each two-month aerodynamic testing period defined in the rules, Red Bull gets about 118 fewer wind tunnel runs, 29.6 fewer ‘wind-on’ hours (when the wind tunnel air speed is 15 m/s or beyond), 740 fewer discrete new geometries in CFD, and 148 fewer hours of wind tunnel occupancy time (wind speeds between 5 m/s and 15 m/s) than the Silverstone squad, which is now among its top chasers.

Red Bull is keeping an eye on its cost cap penalty and limited wind tunnel time over its car developments

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“It’s how you use it,” Horner stated. “We’ve got a limited amount of aero time, we’re almost six months through since the penalty started. And of course, it’s not just this year’s car, it affects next year’s as well. But one would assume up to the point it’s reset at mid-season, Aston have got a lot of research time available to them. So again, it’s how you use it and certainly within the confines of the budget cap as well.”

It helps that Red Bull has an excellent platform to work from to mitigate some of the damage. While last year’s RB18 developed into the best package of 2022 after kicking off the season slightly behind Ferrari, the new car boasts all the old machinery’s greatest hits. Plus, crucially, it is no longer burdened by an overall weight problem.

When the RB18 was launched last year, it tipped the scales much heavier than some of its counterparts, and it required a concerted effort from the design team to take weight out. A side-effect of the heavier car was the neutral handling, which favoured Perez. But once the weight came down, the tendency to oversteer swung the pendulum towards Verstappen as the car aligned more closely to his combative style.

There was also the refinement of the sidepod concept before the dawn of last season, and the lack of porpoising in the RB18 as the other teams floundered suggested that the team had already sussed out the aerodynamic requirements of the car. Instead of compromising on weight, the team made sure it had its house in order with the aero package and then worked backwards in trimming out the fat.

PLUS: How Verstappen and Red Bull went from disaster to record breakers in F1 2022

The Red Bull was still outclassed in the early phases of the season by Ferrari, but the team’s insiders knew of the car’s potential. Verstappen, recounting his memories of last year’s race in Australia, agreed that the overweight nature of the RB18 was causing problems, and that reliability was also a particularly egregious bugbear early on in 2022.

“Our car was very heavily overweight at this stage of the season [last year], so that didn’t help,” Verstappen recalls. “I think last year here we had a big shift in balance between qualifying and the race, so that caught us out in the race. And we were not reliable. That, of course, is never nice at the beginning of the year. But we also knew there was a lot of potential in that car, especially on the weight side.

"Last year was very frustrating [in Australia]: being slow in the race, retiring from the race. But I think we also understood quite quickly after the weekend what we did wrong with the set-up. We also had to work on our reliability: from then onwards it was quite all right in terms of reliability. We made big steps with the performance of the car.”

Ferrari started the new rules era with the fastest car but was overhauled by Red Bull's developments

Photo by: Mark Sutton

The RB19 is effectively a continuation of last year’s car, but improved in every facet to yield the current dominance it has displayed to date. For example, the Honda-developed power unit continues to be one of the best in the field, offering the team ample opportunity to make the most of its aerodynamic efficiency and chase straightline speed. This has been apparently enhanced by a particularly powerful drag reduction system, which has been of considerable use both in qualifying and in the recovery races Verstappen and Perez had to produce in Jeddah and Melbourne respectively.

Sure, an efficient DRS is a nice embellishment to an already luxurious package, but it’s a mere garnish sprinkled atop a particularly delectable machine. How the RB19 operates as an entity is far more important than the situational use of a rear-wing flap, and this is where it really shines. GPS traces generated throughout the opening 2023 rounds show that Red Bull’s strongest suit is on straights and in high-speed corners. Comparing the fastest qualifying laps of Verstappen against Russell, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, the Red Bull does not excel in the slow-speed corners as much as Mercedes or Ferrari. The Aston Martin is strong on traction, but by the end of the straights the Red Bull is the car to have.

That extends to the high-speed corners, and the car is fantastic at building up downforce and carrying speed through the entirety of a corner. Although some cars are undoubtedly better in accelerating from corners, the RB19 refuses to buckle and clings on throughout, while some of the other machines may wash out. Consider Turn 3 at Barcelona, for example, as a medium-to-high-speed corner in modern F1. It would not be unlikely to see a Ferrari or Aston Martin light up the traces into the first phase of the corner, but the Red Bull will be the faster car in the latter stages of the turn.

With a consistent platform, the RB19 has been able to imbue both drivers with plenty of confidence that the car is not going to suddenly snap out of step in the faster corners. Equally, without spikes in loading on the tyres thanks to that stability, the car seems to be well-versed in preserving life in its Pirelli tyres

Here, it’s not just about having the best-designed underbody to build the load. It’s also how the underbody is deployed when considering vehicle dynamics. And, if you’re lucky enough to cast your eye over the RB19 from trackside, you notice how consistently the car retains a steady floor position despite the numerous forces acting upon it.

A quick physics lesson. All objects have six degrees of freedom to move in when untethered: the translation motions of surge (forward and backwards), sway (left and right) and heave (up and down), and the rotational motions of yaw (when an object is turning), pitch (when an object dips at the front and rear), and roll (when something rocks from side to side). These are all considerations when it comes to vehicle dynamics, and all influence the aerodynamic platform of an F1 car.

The RB19's strengths have been shown in high speed corners and on the straights

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The venturi tunnels of a ground effect-style underbody work at their best when those rotational motions are mitigated, although yaw is naturally experienced when a car is cornering, so the floor has to be designed to work in those conditions. But if any rotational motion with a vertical component – in other words, pitch and roll – can be tuned out of the car, then there’s a stable platform to build downforce.

The Red Bull lineage appears to do this better than any other car. Looking at the RB19 sweeping through the high-speed Turns 22 and 23 at Jeddah with very little rotational motion, you could surmise that the team’s efforts to produce a suspension package that can maintain the floor in a relatively static position have been rather successful. Since ground effect aerodynamics were introduced to F1 in the late 1970s, the art of kinematics and vehicle dynamics had to catch up to ensure the cars were not unwieldy and wayward.

Lotus had one of the more novel solutions to chase that holy grail back in 1981, separating the chassis from the venturi tunnels and damping them differently to ensure that compromises on roll stiffness in the monocoque did not affect the downforce produced. Success was limited, but the dual-chassis concept was banned nonetheless.

Active suspension would be perfect for the job in modern F1, but that is not permitted either. Therefore, engineers must flex their creative muscles with passive solutions that do not infringe upon the tightly controlled regulations. In particular, the RB19’s resistance to pitch appears of most intrigue around the paddock. When the car undergoes braking, the front end tends to dive owing to a rotational force around the centre of gravity under inertia. Under acceleration, that rotation reverses and the rear squats down. While anti-dive and anti-squat properties are a largely ubiquitous development in suspension systems, these are most important when attempting to keep the underbody platform working with a consistent mass flow rate of air.

Suggestions are that the rear suspension springs confer a great deal of stiffness under both compression and tension, ensuring that they can mitigate squat when the rear loads under acceleration, and help limit the springs at the front from compressing on the brakes. But it seems that the inclination of the front suspension wishbones has been heavily developed to cut dive out under braking, ensuring there’s no further disturbance to the underbody flow. From the position of the suspension members, it’s possible, with a spot of quick maths, to work out the percentage of anti-dive if you know the brake bias and the centre of gravity. But Red Bull isn’t going to hand those figures over!

With a consistent platform, the RB19 has been able to imbue both drivers with plenty of confidence that the car is not going to suddenly snap out of step in the faster corners. Equally, without spikes in loading on the tyres thanks to that stability, the car seems to be well-versed in preserving life in its Pirelli tyres. Not only can the Red Bull drivers push harder than many of the others thanks to the benign handling qualities of their car, but they can do so for longer. Sainz accused the Ferrari SF-23 of “eating” its tyres in the opening two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, while the RB19 apparently has a far more restrained appetite. It’s partly why the race pace of this year’s car is even more impressive than its qualifying form.

The front suspension is keeping dive to a minimum to aid car stability

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Although the plaudits accrued through Red Bull’s recent successes are commonly placed at Adrian Newey’s doorstep, it does a disservice to the sterling work produced by the 1000-strong workforce at the team. Pierre Wache, Rob Marshall and Ben Waterhouse are top of the tree in the day-to-day technical operations, with hundreds of other engineers all worthy of praise.

But that’s not to say that Newey’s wealth of experience can’t be tapped into. After all, the design guru worked in F1 during the first cycle of ground effect cars, also penning GTP and Indycars to expand his repertoire during his early years behind the drawing board. So he was already acquainted with the pitfalls of a venturi-style underbody, helping the Red Bull team counter the porpoising effect straight out of the gate in 2022.

It’s been suggested in the paddock that Newey has been able to keep his hand in, and his involvement in Red Bull’s 2022 and 2023 cars had critically lain in the development of the suspension. Whether that’s true or not, it would make sense for the Briton’s past experiences to at least offer the more involved engineers some food for thought.

The RB19 might be the most complete car the team has ever produced. It’s devoid of any clear gaps in its armour, largely unhindered by unreliability and, when paired with Verstappen, a force of nature

After three races and three wins, beating Red Bull in 2023 is going to be a monumental task for anyone to achieve. But the evidence is yet to present itself that the team will win every race, and a circuit like Monaco could very realistically derail an attempt at a clean sweep. Of course, Red Bull will have a package that will tack on some extra downforce in a bid to improve traction there, but it could realistically face stern threats from Mercedes and Aston Martin in the principality if they continue to impress in low-speed conditions.

PLUS: Why Red Bull’s biggest F1 adversary is now itself

It’s far too early to be pessimistic that F1 won’t get a proper title bout this year, since there are 20 races to go and plenty of development yet to come. But it’s undeniable that Red Bull has the whip hand once again, and the team is brimming with confidence as its efforts for the new season have already reaped great rewards.

The RB19 might be the most complete car that the team has ever produced. It’s devoid of any clear gaps in its armour, so far largely unhindered by unreliability and, when paired with the most complete driver on the grid in the form of Verstappen, it’s truly a force of nature. It’s fair to say that any other driver with championship aspirations would need to complete the most Herculean of feats to knock Red Bull even slightly off its perch.

Verstappen combined with the RB19 is a combination that'll be hard to stop this year

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool