Christian Horner, the Red Bull Team Principal, despite only completing the shakedown with their 2024 challenger RB20, driven at Silverstone, is already convinced of its performance. The Englishman believes that his championship-winning team has pushed the limits with the car and they have done wonderful work.

Horner and his team produced a car that dominated at every other track, other than the Singapore GP which was won by Carlos Sainz, expecting a similar result. They won 21 of the 22 races last season and with Max Verstappen behind the wheel, are expecting, more success next year.

Logically, there's going to be convergence with stable regulations. We can see other cars have taken an influence from the RB19. So, I think the team has done a wonderful job on RB20. They haven't sat on their laurels, and you can see that they've pushed the boundaries with the car. You’re constantly looking to evolve. If you look at the attention to detail on the car, there's some really exquisite detail. There's been no complacency, they've continued to evolve and continue to push the boundaries.

Christian Horner said as reported by Autosport.com

Horner said that it makes sense that there will be convergence toward stable regulations and it will be evident that other vehicles have been influenced by the RB19. Horner also highlighted some really beautiful details in the design of the car.

Red Bull might have copied Mercedes W14 while designing RB20

With the new engine cover bodywork, which has a high waistline and full-length gulleys running from the halo’s edge, the RB20 has drawn comparisons to the Mercedes W14 from 2023. Red Bull has also switched to an overbite, where the top surface extends beyond the main intake, from a sidepod inlet that resembles an underbite and is commonly used by other teams.

With cooler temperatures and less marginal cooling in Japan when F1 moves there in early April, the RB20 will receive an upgrade to a design based on the Mercedes size-zero sidepod. Mercedes found it difficult to grasp this idea in 2022 and 2023. Mercedes reasoned that more downforce could be obtained for the new ground effect era by reducing the bodywork to increase the surface area of the prepotent floor.

Eventually, Mercedes decided against using that configuration for the 2023 Monaco GP, switching to more conventional downwash side pods, as pioneered most notably by Red Bull. The launch-spec RB20 looks to have more compact vertical sidepod radiator inlets to enable tighter bodywork, Red Bull should be able to assist its transition to a so-called zeropod.

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