Adrian Newey Reveals Red Bull’s “Aggressive” Changes That Helped Max Verstappen Script Historic 2023

2023 has been a season unlike any other for Red Bull. While they have had dominant cars in the past, none come close to the performance of the RB19. However, when the new regulations were introduced in 2020, Adrian Newey and a lot of other team bosses believed the changes were a bit too drastic, with the aerodynamic wizard sharing, “This looks way too restrictive and quite dull.”

Little did the Milton Keynes outfit know, the behemoth that would follow their 2022 challenger (RB18), would even make Lewis Hamilton exclaim it was the fastest car he had ever seen. But what changes had Newey’s camp made to the RB19 owing to which it not only outperformed its predecessor but also the competition?

Despite looking the same, the RB19 had significant changes over its predecessor

The RB19’s future was already at risk when the regulations for the 2023 season introduced a 15mm increase in the rear floor and a 10mm increase in the height of the diffuser. Fortunately, this problem solved itself, because as it turns out, the change benefitted the RB19. After all, Newey felt they had been struggling against the Ferrari on high-speed corners, and the added width and height helped neutralize the issue.

While the Austrian felt no need to panic over the regulations changes, there were significant changes to the RB19 hidden under plain sight. The car’s chassis had a more angular ‘V’ shape that enabled the RB19 to accommodate more volume, which meant there was more room for air to flow through the tunnels and side pods, allowing a greater vortex to form.

Newey shared how this impacted the RB19 and the increased downforce demanded from modern F1 cars. He was quoted by FormulaPassion, saying, “It’s evolutionary. We had a ‘V’ shape on last year’s car but were a bit more aggressive in the nose area on this year’s. It’s really just management of the front wheel wake. As the cars have become better understood, the downforce has gone up and quite often that means a bigger front-wing demand. So then you have to put a bit more effort into managing how you use the front wing.”

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The update had particularly helped to increase the efficiency of the DRS, owing to the raised diffuser. The reason this was especially crucial for Verstappen’s 2023 campaign was because it made the RB19 untouchable in races. While the Dutch Lion may have fallen victim to Leclerc’s qualifying pace on a few occasions, by the tenth lap, he had either gained a substantial lead or made overtakes left, right, and center with how well the DRS now worked.

How Newey’s decision to focus on race pace paid off

Although the RB19 dominated races, the minor qualifying setbacks were a cause of concern for many Verstappen fans. But Adrian Newey revealed that the plan all along was to focus on the race pace. He was quoted by The Race, “Yes, that’s just the way we’ve developed the car. We’ve tried to prioritize race performance more than qualifying. We made that decision back in ’21 when we were designing the car, to try to prioritize the race performance over one-lap performance.”

This decision had paid off rather quickly, as Verstappen crawled back from a few setbacks in the first few races to match Perez’s championship lead and eventually overtake him. On the other hand, the choice to favor a qualifying pace had not worked out for Ferrari. Leclerc gained notoriety throughout the season for his failure to convert pole positions into race wins, owing majorly to the RB19 outclassing the SF23 in race pace.

Newey concluded, “It was a deliberate choice and we felt that if the overtaking was going to become easier then that presumably meant qualifying performance would be a slightly lower priority than in the past and it seems to have worked out.”

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With Adrian Newey’s revelation about the aggressive approach to the RB19’s snout paired with their focus on race performance over qualifying, it becomes all the more evident just how crucial the aerodynamic wizard has been for Verstappen’s third title charge. Do you think the RB20 will surpass all expectations?