“The 2022 car will be really attractive”. Like this Helmut Marko last November he was already unbalanced after seeing the first scale models of the new Red Bull which will return to show off the number one seven years after 2014, when it stood out on Sebastian Vettel’s RB18. Then the turbo-hybrid era had begun, which marked the net domination of Mercedes, decidedly more performing than its competitors, especially as regards the power unit.
There Red Bull it took seven years to return to being competitive for a world title, a path that was also marked by the change of supplier for the engine, from Renault to Honda. The RB16-B built by Adrian Newey for the 2021 season corrected the frame defects that emerged on the RB16 which ended 2020 with only two victories under his belt with Max Verstappen (one at Silverstone on the occasion of the Grand Prix dedicated to the 70th anniversary of F1 and one in the grand finale in Abu Dhabi). The 2021 single-seater combined with a Honda power unit finally able to withstand the comparison with the Mercedes one gave Max Verstappen the opportunity to compete for the conquest of the world title, won in Abi Dhabi on the last lap in a daring way. The hope of the opponents is that the tug-of-war in 2021 has ‘distracted’ Mercedes and Red Bull from the 2022 project. “We will only find out in Bahrain, if Ferrari wipes out everyone then yes, we will have neglected 2022”, was the comment by Christian Horner, who reiterated that he had full confidence that the workforce in Milton Keynes was thoughtfully divided between 2021 and 2022 in order not to appear at the start of the next championship “with two seconds of disadvantage” as Toto Wolff had hypothesized in front of the continuous updates brought to the track by Red Bull in the first weekend of 2021. Adrian Newey, the wizard of aerodynamics, Red Bull’s true ace in the hole, according to rumors he is ready to amaze by advancing the cockpit in order to make the most of the venturi channels with narrow and elongated bellies. To achieve this, he also asked Honda to further compact the RA621H power unit in terms of ‘packaging’, dimensions, i.e. the very aspect that the opponents tried to ‘hit’ by preventing Ferrari from taking to the track at Fiorano with the SF21 used in 2021.
Red Bull 2022 will be called RB18 – the abbreviation RB17 has therefore been skipped – and today at 17:00 the presentation through the official social channels of the Milton Keynes team is scheduled. Helmut Marko anticipated that the event is important for sponsors and fans (above we have reported a concept created by the designer Daniel Crossman from which the photo on the cover is taken), but that the technical details of the new weapon that will be entrusted to Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will not be visible because they are ready and completed only in view of the shakedown that will precede the first scheduled pre-testing session from 23 to 25 February in Barcelona on the Montmelò circuit. In Abu Dhabi, Red Bull sources claimed that they had already achieved the performance of 2021 in terms of simulations according to the data collected. Honda, for its part, stressed that recovering the power lost due to the entry into force of a percentage of biofuel (10% ethanol) is not a walk in the park. The level of competitiveness, however, can only be verified in Bahrain in the session scheduled for March from 10 to 12 a week before the start of the World Cup. Today, at 17:00, we will have to be satisfied ‘only’ with shapes – not definitive – and colors.
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