Adrian Newey claims Red Bull expected a ‘very tough’ 2023 season

Adrian Newey mentioned that Red Bull was cautious of its prospects before the start of the 2023 F1 season.

Adrian Newey claims Red Bull expected a ‘very tough’ 2023 season

Adrian Newey and Christian Horner (Via IMAGO)

Red Bull Racing had a historic run in 2023. Max Verstappen had a record-breaking campaign with a staggering nineteen race victories. The Austrian team had a massive pace advantage this year with rivals not even coming close to the RB-19. Now, Red Bull Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey has insisted that the team expected a challenging 2023 season.

Newey mentioned that Red Bull was cautious heading into 2023 as the Austrian team expected to face stiff competition from rivals. However, the 64-year-old admitted that no one would’ve thought that Milton Keynes would have a record-breaking campaign this year. Certainly, a great surprise for the reigning world champions.

Going into the season we thought this year was going to be really tough. The way it panned out, no one ever expected it.
Adrian Newey said on the Formula For Success podcast (H&T: RacingNews365)

Adrian Newey affirmed that the team did not reflect on its expectations during the season. Rather, Milton Keynes was completely focused on getting the most out of its car the entire year. Red Bull focused on getting the maximum out of its cars without compromising on car development for the 2024 season.

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The funny thing is, when you're in it, you're just in it. You're looking forward, you're not really reflecting.

Singapore GP setback exposed Red Bull’s weaknesses

Red Bull had a disastrous weekend in Singapore. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez failed to fight for the race win. Moreover, AlphaTauri driver Liam Lawson managed to outqualify both Red Bull drivers that weekend. The Singapore GP was the only race that was not won by the Milton Keynes-based team.

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen (image via IMAGO)

Adrian Newey highlighted that the Singapore GP served as a lesson for Red Bull. The Austrian team was able to understand its weaknesses after this disappointing season. As such, the Red Bull CTO reckoned that the Marina Bay weekend turned out to be beneficial for Milton Keynes. Subsequently, Red Bull would be looking to fix its issues for next season.

It's why Singapore was the race that we didn't win. It's quite useful for us, because we made a complete and utter arse of that if I'm honest, it exposed some weaknesses in the car.

Certainly, Adrian Newey would be looking at every aspect of the 2024 Red Bull car to extract an extra tenth of a second. The Austrian team aims to solidify its advantage next season. However, this would not be easy as rivals work extensively to bridge the gap against the reigning world champions. As such the 2024 F1 season could be an exciting year for F1 fans.

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