Newey's knowledge helps Red Bull: 'Mercedes and Ferrari are fearful'

Adrian Newey has been active in Formula 1 for some time now and, not for the first time, he is proving to be an important weapon for Red Bull Racing. The top designer was already in F1 in the days of the 'ground effect cars' and knew in advance that porpoising could be a problem. Not surprisingly, the RB18 is one of the few cars that barely bounces.

Who understands porpoising?

This is a big advantage for the team not only in terms of driving but mainly in terms of bringing updates. Red Bull understands the problem and can therefore push through updates without risking making porpoising worse. This is at Ferrari and Mercedes according to Auto, Motor und Sport a major problem.

At Mercedes, bouncing is a big problem and the car is far behind the competition in terms of performance. There is a lot of demand for updates, but the team doesn't want to do this until it understands the car. If something works, it is pure luck and you have to see if the next update also works. You have to understand why something does or doesn't work.

Advantage for Red Bull

According to the German medium, this also makes Ferrari anxious to bring new updates. Ferrari has the pace to compete at the front but does not yet fully understand why the bounce has less effect on them. An update might bring performance but could also make the porpoising worse without Ferrari knowing this in advance.

Because Ferrari and Mercedes simply do not yet understand why their car is so good or so bad, they cannot work on performance. They need to understand porpoising first, before adding new things to the car. In that time, Red Bull can benefit from Newey's knowledge and potentially outrun the competition.