Adrian Newey explains Red Bull decision to ignore Mercedes’ “polar opposite” F1 car concept

Red Bull F1 chief technical officer Adrian Newey has explained why he and his design team opted against studying Mercedes’ “polar opposite” philosophy. 
Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W13 - sidepod
Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W13 - sidepod

Newey’s RB18 design won 17 of the 22 races as Red Bull dominated the first year of F1’s new aerodynamic era 🍸in 2022, while the team’s R❀B19 has been victorious in all but one of the 16 races to have taken place so far this year. 

Red Bull swept to a world championship double last season and look set to replicate that feat again, having already clinched the constructors’ title last time out in Japan. 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen will have his first chance of securing his third consecutive wo💃ꩲrld title at the Qatar Grand Prix. 

In contrast, Mercedes have endured a difficul꧟t two campaigns hampered by competitive struggleಌs after adopting a unique design concept with their W13 and W14 challengers. 

Most of the F1 field has now converged to a similar approach to Red ꧃Bull’s successful philosophy, proving Newey’s “gut feel” about his team’s design to be correct.&nbs𝄹p;

“Obviously with last year’s car we took an aerodynamic direction with the sidepod and design and the concept of the car, which was almost polar opposite to what Mercedes did,” Newey told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast. 

“Mercedes showedꦉ flashes of competitive last year, they won in Brazil.

“Then you’re faced with a choice of well, do we start to research Mercedes𓂃 in case you’ve missed something or do we stick with what we’re doing? And gut feel was, let’s stick with what we’re doing.”

Max Verstappen (NLD), Red Bull Racing Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka, Japan, Practice
Max Verstappen (NLD), Red Bull Racing Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 17, Japanese Grand Prix…

Newey labelled F1’s 2022 aerodynamic regulation overhaul as “the biggest single rule change” since 1982 - when venturi tunnels were ou🦩tlawed. 

“It was [a matter of] sitting down with the rule book then trying to understand what architecture in terms of where do you put the front wheels, where do you put the rear wheels relative to the fixed bits of the series ofꦚ chassis, engine and g✱earbox. The underlying architecture, you have to decide,” he explained. 

“In my case, I concentrated on the architecture and then the front and rear su🐠spension because they’re the kind of key bits that you want to try and get right if you possibly can. 

“If you get the bodywork wrong, within 🐭reason, you can change it during a season. But if you get the underlying architecture wrong, at the very least you stuck with it for one season.”

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