By Carlo Platella
There couldn't have been a better start to the season for the world champions, with two doubles in as many races played and the sign of a supremacy that will be difficult to undermine in the short term. What is surprising is not the lead in the standings, which is difficult to undermine after just one winter, but rather the bold choices on the new car, which however do not prevent teams or drivers from immediately finding the optimal setup. A dynamic that makes us reflect on how the RB20 is actually the evolution of an already known concept.
Dare without distorting
There is a recurring debate on whether the new Red Bull is an evolution or rather a revolution of the previous cars, a question whose answer changes depending on what is taken into consideration. Under the hood and in the shape of the bodywork, the RB20 actually overturns the approach of the last two years, but only to enhance the same basic aerodynamic concept, carried forward from 2022. “Our car will be a third evolution of the RB18”Adrian Newey anticipated a few weeks before the presentation.
The RB20 is an evolution for what defines the essence of a modern Formula 1, i.e its aerodynamic characteristics: balance; heights from the ground and mechanical stiffness at which the car is designed to run; sensitivity to steering angles and yaw; generation and structure of vortices around the car; protection logics from external turbulences; structure of the flows under the bottom and sorting between the expulsion from the lateral edge or from the rear diffuser.
The preservation of an aerodynamic concept already known on the RB20 ensures behavior similar to that of its famous progenitors. However, without an innovative and courageous approach with the bodywork interacting aerodynamically with the floor, Red Bull would not have achieved the same results, considering how previous shapes were at the limit of their potential. The upheaval under the skin of the RB20 instead made it possible to draw new lines, allowing the flows to get to the rear while conserving more energy, useful for fueling the aerodynamic concept of the fund. The environment behind the diffuser is thus able to extract the flows more decisively from under the car, generating greater aerodynamic load.
Perfect tuning
In 2024, Red Bull improves without changing, putting on track solutions that make the aerodynamic structure underlying the successes of recent years work even better. In the first two Grands Prix the car even goes beyond what was expected internal to the team. The RB20 has no particular flaws in its character that need to be corrected, nor does the team show any difficulty in extracting its potential. Clues that give the measure of an already mature project, precisely because it is a direct evolution of the previous ones.
The continuity with the past also emerges from the words of the pilots. “The car is very similar in terms of balance to what we had last year. It's simply better in every way”, Sergio Perez's response. Max Verstappen, interviewed by L'Equipe, echoes this: “I immediately felt at ease behind the wheel of the RB20, I would say that it is an evolution of the RB19. […] I immediately understood that it was a fast car because it was balanced and it was easy to immediately set a fairly quick timed lap.”
This is also why Red Bull immediately manages to hit the optimal operating window of the RB20. The proof is that on the smooth asphalt of Jeddah the world champions managed to exploit the difficult peak grip of the new tire in qualifying, a practice in which Ferrari had difficulty. Furthermore, when Verstappen says he is satisfied with the balance of the car, he does not always find Perez agreeing, another sign of a car that establishes a better harmony with the world champion, like the RB19 at the end of 2023.
The leap from 2024
In the first two qualifying sessions of the year, Verstappen and Red Bull had an average advantage of 3 tenths over Ferrari and Aston Martin in the flying lap, which rose to half a second over McLaren and 6 tenths over Mercedes. The RB20 maintains all the strengths of the previous project, such as the management of rubber degradation, perfectly appreciated in Bahrain, and aerodynamic efficiency. Red Bull is still the reference in high-speed corners, without giving up speed in the sprint, also thanks to that the effectiveness of the DRS. Net of the slipstream effect, the second of the RB20s established itself as the fastest car in a straight line in Bahrain qualifying, climbing to third place in Jeddah behind only the Haas and Racing Bulls.
The team from Milton Keynes managed to enhance the strengths of the latest car, while at the same time addressing its weak points. Above all, the reduced agility in slow speed that emerged in 2023 stood out, but the hairpin bends of the inaugural stage in Bahrain underline the progress in this area: “I think the car handles better, especially at low speeds. Overall though, as soon as I got on board, it didn't seem like a completely different car.” Words, those of Verstappen, which confirm the continuity between the 2024 project and the previous ones.
Ball for development
The first pursuer to appear in Red Bull's mirrors is now Ferrari. In Bahrain Verstappen showed a 6 tenths advantage in pace on hard tires compared to Sainz, who however was bothered by brake problems, also ignoring how much the world champion actually pushed. In Jeddah, in those 10 laps in which Leclerc is in free air and Verstappen pushes, setting his best times, the world champion instead expresses a 4 tenths advantage over the pace.
Despite the many unknowns, what emerges is a superiority of around half a second over the race pace, an important gap, but certainly not unbridgeable. Red Bull is aware of this, also aware that Ferrari has greater margins for growth from its assets, finding themselves grappling with a revolutionized, immature concept still to be developed. For this reason, updates will soon arrive on the RB20, which will affect the bodywork and bottom, once again daring with the shapes without distorting the proven basic concept.
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