The Red Bull Racing team surprised its competitors this season by opting for a substantial overhaul of its RB19 2023 challenger instead of a simple evolution. This bold move paid dividends, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez securing 1-2 finishes in the first two races of the season.
Discussing the rationale behind the decision, Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan emphasized the importance of ensuring continued performance improvements throughout the remaining cycles of the current regulations, leading up to the reset in 2026.
“If we choose to make some bigger changes on the car it opens up more options for us,” Monaghan explained. “That’s part of our reason to say ‘let’s go ahead and change it more fully’. It’s probably the last big roll of the dice because into 2025 you have to be looking at the 2026 car.”
As teams aim to gain an early advantage under the 2026 rules, decisions regarding resource allocation for the upcoming year will need to be made soon.
“You will see quite early on in terms of aerodynamic research if we are bumping into some limits,” Monaghan noted. “At that point, you have to say ‘Okay, can we look at it differently and what do we need to change?'”
Monaghan highlighted that early analysis of the RB20 showed promising potential for further improvement, making it challenging for rivals to catch up.
“At the moment gains are still there,” he stated. “Magnitude at the moment we can find similar gains to last year. I suspect towards the end of the year it may well diminish a bit, but we’ve got some brilliantly creative people and if they find it, then we’ll take it.”
Despite the visual differences between the RB20 and its predecessor, particularly in areas like side pods and engine cover gulleys, Monaghan clarified that the changes were not as radical as some may think.
“The magnitude of evolution, if you watch it visually, isn’t necessarily indicative of what we have achieved in terms of lap time,” he explained. “You have to make it stable… An evolution of what we had last year, if we put enough in it to keep ourselves quicker than the opposition, then it’s the right thing to do.”
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