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Red Bull not sure if the RB20 is good enough: 'Maybe too conservative'
Adrian Newey may have designed the most successful Formula 1 car ever with last year's RB19, but he says that is no guarantee that the RB20 will be just as strong. The level of dominance in 2023 also came as a surprise to Newey.
Newey is aware that, despite the team's strong form last year, the decision to continue developing the same concept will not necessarily be enough to maintain the lead. "Our car, it's very much a third evolution of the '22 car," he explained to the Talking Bull podcast.
Newey doubts Red Bull RB20 is good enough
"This year's car is the third evolution of that original RB18. What we don't know, of course, is the third evolution too conservative, while others have done something different? You just don't know," Newey continued.
Red Bull Racing's chief technical officer says he was completely surprised by the RB19's huge lead over the other F1 teams, as the car was mostly an evolution of its predecessor. "In '23, so now the second season of those new regulations, we completely expected the grid to close up. So last year, took all of us, me most of all, by complete surprise. We really didn't expect the domination that we had," he admits.
"This year, from what I understand, a lot of our rivals have kind of taken a good look this time, and I suspect there'll be quite a few cars that look very similar to our car," Newey said. On 15 February, it will be Red Bull's turn to present the new F1 car for 2024.