Coming Off a Championship Winning Season, Red Bull F1 Genius Worried the Road Ends Here: “Someone Else Will…”

Red Bull vs. Ferrari – This was the battle that started the 2022 season with a bang. The stark contrast between Ferrari’s F1-75 and Red Bull’s RB18 was visible steadily as the season progressed. Yet, we saw a tough fight between the two at least in the initial part of the season. Although the designer of the RB18, Adrian Newey feels that none of the cars may have the best development concepts.

As per German newspaper Auto Motor und Sport, Adrian Newey spoke about how the development path chosen by Red Bull for its 2022 car may not be the best. Newey mentioned how the different approaches to the ground-effect regulations have different interpretations by all teams.

Newey said, “It means that none of us are absolutely right and that there has to be something better. Elements of a car cannot be isolated, because the sides and the underbody work in synergy.” [translated via Google]

Newey referred to how the F1-75 and the RB-18 are polar opposites in terms of their concepts but generate peak performance.

Ferrari’s car has been supreme on one-lap pace in qualifying trim. Although, it falls short of Red Bull’s long-run pace in race trim. The Milton-Keynes team has focused on their race pace more compared to Ferrari.

The Red Bull Aerodynamicist further said, “We will continue to develop our concept because we know it better. But I dare not say whether our road is the best. It is very probable that someone else will come up with a better idea.”

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For next year, Newey expects Mercedes to catch up as well, given their strong end to 2022. While they will continue the development of the RB18, Ferrari is also expected to iron out the F1-75’s reliability concerns.

Red Bull vs. Ferrari – A Performance Review of 2022

It had been almost 10 years since fans saw a Red Bull vs. Ferrari title battle. Finally, we got to see the same for the first time since the 2012 season.

Looking back at their 2022 battle, it was a thrilling fight in the initial few rounds of the season. The RB-18 suffered some reliability issues in the first 3 races, which the F1-75 also encountered later. Despite that, both cars had their supreme pace at different points in the season.

Red Bull had a great straight-line speed and was expected to get an advantage on tracks like Belgium, Italy, Silverstone, Baku, etc. While, Ferrari was faster in the corners and many expected them to be quicker on high-downforce tracks like Monaco, Singapore, and Hungary.

Besides the characteristics, the qualifying and race pace was again different for both teams. Ferrari mainly focused on better qualifying pace, while Red Bull prioritized the RB-18 for race days.

The engine and hydraulics reliability plagued both teams in the season. Although the difference was Red Bull got these reality checks in the first few races while Ferrari’s engines broke down in the middle part of the season when Red Bull ran away with the points.

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Eventually, it was polar opposite seasons for both teams. With the focus shifting to 2023, do you think Red Bull and Ferrari will be evenly matched?