Red Bull’s Technical Director reveals the biggest advantage RB19 has over its rivals

The RB19 has been unstoppable in 2023, securing victory in every race so far this season.

The supreme RB19(Credits: Autoweek)

Red Bull’s RB19 has been a class apart from the field in 2023, propelling Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to a clean sweep of eight wins in the first eight races of the season. The car has looked particularly planted in high-speed corners, but, despite its downforce prowess, it has also enjoyed a straight-line speed advantage over the competition, both with and without DRS.

Having spoken to the media in response to inquiries about the primary advantage of the car, Technical Director Pierre Wache asserted their biggest advantage over their rivals to be efficiency, generating downforce on a vast array of tracks without the drawback of excessive drag.

Technical Director Pierre Wache said, “Efficiency, I would say. On different tracks, we are able to produce downforce without massive drag, which I think is the main strength.” Rivals speculated Red Bull to compromise the qualifying pace to be better on Sunday. In response, Wache said, “Not really. In qualifying, for sure, we are pushing.”

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Following Sergio Perez’s crash during qualifying in Monaco, the RB19 was lifted into the air, giving the rest of the competition a close look at the intricacies of its floor. Despite this exposure, Wache claims that Red Bull was not concerned about the visibility of the floor area on their dominant 2023 car. He stated that rival teams would have already had access to similar images, minimizing any potential disadvantage caused by the incident.

Pierre Wache is cautious of rival teams leveling with Red Bull

As per Wache’s observations, Red Bull’s competitors, namely Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Mercedes have been progressively reducing the margin in qualifying performance on tracks that favor their respective cars. However, he emphasized that Red Bull maintains a substantial advantage in tire management throughout stints.

He said, “You see that in qualifying for sure they were every time closer in terms of pure performance. In terms of management of pace during the race, we have some advantage. But I’m sure they can unlock [more performance]. And you see some updates coming from our competitors here. For sure it will be closer.”

TEAM STANDINGS

Red Bull look unstoppable ? And the fight behind them looks set to rumble on all year-long ?#CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/1JQxur9fwY
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 18, 2023

Red Bull has notably taken pole position at every race this season except the Azerbaijan GP. However, their rivals are progressively improving, weekend after weekend. The most recent race in Canada saw Red Bull’s narrow win yet, albeit a nine-second gap compared to their usual domination of over 20 seconds.

The reigning constructors’ champions are the favorites to take it home again, with a massive 154-point lead on the top. Interestingly, this is the same total as the points of Mercedes and Aston Martin combined, reiterating just how triumphant at the top Red Bull has been this season.