The key traits of Red Bull's first F1 winner visible in its 2023 dominator

One car started a legacy, the other stamped its membership card into the highly exclusive ‘100 Club’. On the face of it, there should be very little similarity between Red Bull’s contemporary RB19 and the RB5 with which it secured its first Formula 1 win. The 14 years between them, and the fact that they were built to two very different rulesets, suggests that the paint-job is their only source of common ground. Apples versus oranges, as it were – but that’s not entirely true.

Both cars represent milestones in the Adrian Newey design lineage. Much as the century-hitting RB19 – or more overtly, its RB18 predecessor – has become a trendsetter amid the current generation, the RB5 was something of a tastemaker in tackling the aero regulations devised for 2009. Red Bull showed the way as it revised and refined the ideas on the 2009 car to become F1’s dominant force in the early 2010s, as Sebastian Vettel’s supremacy appeared unassailable at the time.

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Aerodynamic changes have come and gone in that period, ultimately yielding the return of ground effect underbodies for the 2022 season. But there are still sensibilities that remain present in both cars, even if they manifest as abstract concepts more than any physical similarities. After all, there were seeds planted in Newey’s designs at March that later blossomed in his Williams and McLaren projects, particularly when considering the car as a holistic package mechanically and aerodynamically. His 17-year stint at Red Bull, then, is no exception.

In terms of the very few visual similarities between the two cars, the RB5 somewhat popularised the downwashing sidepod design that took flight around the early 2010s and was reprised for the modern-day cars. The overall concept was for a similar purpose in maximising the flow towards the top of the diffuser, with a view to boosting its effectiveness.

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But they did so in differing ways; the RB5 implemented it as a platform to aim its exhausts at the floor, which ultimately morphed into the exhaust-blown underbody introduced a couple of seasons later. The RB19 cannot make use of that now that the tailpipe has been shifted to the back of the engine cover, but the use of downwash remains important in extracting performance out of the venturi tunnels as the airflow expands at the back.

The Brawn squad dominated the early proceedings in 2009 after pioneering not only the double diffuser, but an aggressive approach to its front-wing endplates to cycle airflow outwards. However, the RB5 was an adaptable package and, once those ideas had been assimilated into the car, became the more compelling prospect in the second half of the season. That the team’s aerodynamicists under Newey’s guidance could so quickly understand a new concept is a testament to the engineering strength on which it prides itself.

Red Bull couldn't overcome the points advantage Button had built up early in 2009, but there was no question by midseason which was the better package

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

That was visible once again, in 2022, when the change in ruleset prompted a complete clean-sheet design from every team on the grid. The principles involved in designing the car were very different, but Red Bull once again excelled in pinpointing the right concept to move forward with.

Newey, for his part, is less involved today in the granular details of the overall aerodynamic package, but his influence in the suspension layout shows how the team is willing to tap into one of its most valuable resources. When it came to developing the RB5, Newey and Red Bull broke with the then-conventional tradition to install pull-rod suspension at the rear, dropping the centre of gravity. This in turn meant that the sloped sidepods were possible.

For the reintroduction of ground-effect aerodynamics, Red Bull flipped convention once again and opted for pull-rod front suspension and a push-rod rear package. While the physical concept is very different for the newer breed of cars, the team’s attitude to developing a suspension package that best serves the aerodynamic platform remains unerring.

Both Red Bull’s first ever winner and the scorer of its 100th grand prix victory owe their successes to a unified technical front underpinned by the direction of a talismanic designer

It’s also interesting to remember where the RB5 sits in Red Bull’s history. The RB1 that opened its tenure as a constructor in F1 was largely a reliveried Jaguar, and the succeeding RB2 pre-dated Newey’s influence on the design of the cars. Much of his earlier years at the team were spent moulding the technical department in his image, and the visuals of the RB3 and RB4 bore a resemblance to the McLarens he was involved with in his latter seasons at the Woking team.

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But the RB5 was the culmination of the efforts made behind the scenes to transform Red Bull from a midfield operation into a legitimate frontrunner. Sure, 2009’s regulations threw up myriad curveballs that reset the competitive order, but it nonetheless required the teams to pour their resources into making the best of the new rules.

The RB19 sits in quite a different place. Red Bull was already at its zenith when this car was spawned, having returned to collecting championship victories two seasons prior. So the circumstances place it in a similar historical stratum to 2011’s RB7, an all-conquering car that had been perfected iteratively over the prior couple of seasons.

Regardless, both Red Bull’s first-ever winner and the scorer of its 100th grand prix victory owe their successes to a unified technical front underpinned by the direction of a talismanic designer. Of all the cars ever conceived by the Milton Keynes squad, their successes will ensure they go down as two of the most iconic.

The RB19 has the same Newey stamp as the RB5 and is destined to be much more successful with Verstappen romping towards a third world title

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool