Red Bull engineer admits to being ‘surprised’ by Mercedes and Aston Martin’s 2024 challengers as he claims ‘their concept is good’
Mercedes have released their W15 recently which features a set of front wings that are quite ingenious in structure.
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Pierre Waché (via imago)
The months of waiting endlessly for the Formula 1 season to restart have finally come to an end. With the Bahrain Grand Prix approaching rapidly, the teams are now hard at work to make sure their debuts in 2024 go smoothly and they are established as serious contenders for the Championship this year. As of now, all the participating teams have revealed their challengers for the new season, and some have even taken to the racetracks to try out the new machines. And upon seeing Mercedes and Aston Martin’s new offerings, a certain Red Bull personnel has admitted he is quite ‘surprised’.
Mercedes have slogged over the last two years with a below-par performance as none of their drivers won a Grand Prix in 2023 and only George Russell clocked a single race win back in 2022. But this year, they have unveiled a car with some curious elements that have made the W15 the talk of the town. Apparently, the W15 has some new front wings that are borderline illegal, as per F1 technical expert Craig Scarborough. Meanwhile, Aston Martin’s car has been termed a copy of the RB19 by some fans as well.
Whatever be the controversies surrounding the 2024 challengers of Mercedes and Aston Martin, Red Bull engineer Pierre Waché admitted he is quite surprised by them.
Mercedes is surprising for me. Their concept is surprising. It's interesting. Aston also is quite good. I didn't have time to see the rest in more detail. They didn't reveal as much during their presentation. But I'm sure we'll find some interesting stuff.Pierre Waché said, via GPBlog.
[Related_content] Related: Helmut Marko defends Red Bull for a delay in investigation, praises them for swift action on alleged work rival Christian Horner [/related_content]
Max Verstappen gives his verdict after ‘having a lot of fun’ during his first outing with the RB20
While Mercedes have gone a different route than most to develop their front wings, Red Bull have revealed their RB20 that is quite similar to the Silver Arrows challenger from 2023. While this has gotten the F1 town talking, everyone had been waiting with bated breath to see how Max Verstappen’s car fares at the practice sessions ahead of the Bahrain season-opening Grand Prix. And the RB20 impressed and went above and beyond as it helped Verstappen dominate the first practice sessions completely.
After getting out of the RB20 cockpit, an exhilarated Max Verstappen seemed quite happy and optimistic as he gave his first verdict on the car.
We were able to do a lot of laps, and with the car, we were able to try out quite a lot of things, so I'm very happy overall.And yes, I had a lot of fun today. I was very happy with how the car reacted; the balance was very good. It's only a test, but we had a good day.Max Verstappen said about his Day 1 experience with the RB20.
In other news, Red Bull might be looking into options to replace Max Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez as his contract is set to run out at the end of 2024. The Austrian team has quite a few potential recruits to size up as their Team Principal Christian Horner was recently spotted chatting with Carlos Sainz Sr. whose son, Carlos Sainz Jr., has been dropped by Ferrari as they did not renew him for 2025.
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