Adrian Newey admits to being surprised by the overwhelming dominance of the RB19
The 2023 season of Red Bull was masterfully and completely dominated. The Austrian team accentuated its aerodynamic advantage from the previous season. A situation that surprised engineer Adrian Newey.
Red Bull has confirmed its return to the top of the World Championship. After a well-controlled 2022 season, the Austrian team has undoubtedly dominated the 2023 season, only letting go of one Grand Prix, that of Singapore, to the RB 19. The performance of the car has been exceptional, relegating the other teams to a status of non-threatening competitors.
At the end of the 2023 season, Red Bull has not shown any signs of losing ground, and the rival teams still seem to be lagging behind in understanding the aerodynamic regulations and the ground effect.
An accentuated advantage
Adrian Newey led the development of the RB19, contributing to making the car unbeatable in 2023, just like in 2022. The engineer quickly assimilated the technical regulations introduced in the previous season, allowing Red Bull to assert itself as a leader in this new regulatory context. However, he admits to being surprised by the further accentuation of the Austrian team’s advantage in 2023, contrary to what he anticipated.
“It’s a complete surprise,” conceded the British engineer on the show Top Gear. “For Season 22, we experienced the biggest regulatory change on the chassis side since 1983. We thought that approaching the second year, with almost no regulation changes over the winter, our advantage would be diminished, if not eradicated. Clearly, that’s not how it played out.”
A follower of new regulations
Adrian Newey, with his experience with several teams since 1986, has always been able to adapt to regulatory changes. His expertise has allowed him to develop competitive cars for teams such as Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull. He particularly enjoys regulatory changes, and for the 2022 season, he had anticipated the challenges related to the return of ground effect, having already worked on similar issues in IndyCar.
“I have always appreciated regulation changes,” he said in the car show. “For 2022, we had to do some things differently. It was the return of the ground effect, and I was certainly aware of the pitfalls having worked in IndyCar. The rebound is not solely due to the aerodynamic shape of the car, there are other factors. The suspension characteristics, the body stiffness… And when we designed the RB18, we were very aware of that. We had a little bit of difficulty at the very beginning, but we were at the top from the first race.”
Adrian Newey believes that the bouncing issue has not been fully resolved by all teams, suggesting that some have not yet addressed this aerodynamic flaw. He explained that simulating a bounce in a wind tunnel is a temporary problem. You don’t see the issue if you don’t look for it. That’s the difficulty with all simulation tools. They depend on what you put into them. If you haven’t looked in the right place and put the right things, you won’t get the right answers.
In 2023, Red Bull was subjected to a wind tunnel time restriction, a penalty that could have repercussions on the car developed for 2024.
