Red Bull Racing launches RB20 ahead of title defence, Sergio Perez’s contract year, Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 comeback, Formula 1 news 2024

Is this the moment Red Bull Racing dealt arch rival Mercedes a knockout blow?

The one-time explosive rivalry between the two Formula 1 giants has barely simmered for the last two seasons.

Red Bull Racing has swept all before it thanks to a class-leading design under the regulations introduced in 2022, while Mercedes has struggled with a series of ill-conceived cars that left it languishing off the pace.

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Last year, amid another difficult campaign, Mercedes finally abandoned the path it was attempting to forge on its own and made drastic changes to its car. This year is unveiled a far more mainstream solution to for its third attempt under these rules.

Though far from a copy, it borrowed heavily from the designs pioneered by its nemesis in Milton Keynes in the hope that it could more quickly close the gap.

It must have been a chastening U-turn for the designers who had poured two years into what turned out to be a hamstrung car.

But Red Bull Racing was preparing to deal them another serving of pain.

When the reigning championship-winning team ended Formula 1 launch week overnight, it revealed a car that appeared much inspired by a collection of abandoned Mercedes ideas from the previous two campaigns.

The RB20, celebrating two decades of Red Bull Racing in Formula 1, has introduced the vertical sidepod inlets central to Mercedes’s much-maligned ‘zero-sidepod’ design of 2022 and early 2023.

Its shoulders sit high and proud around the engine cover, much as they did on the revised Mercedes of last year. The German marque abandoned those too for 2024.

What a psychological blow it would be for Red Bull Racing to romp to a third consecutive constructors title and fourth drivers championship with ideas toiled over and discarded by the wallowing Mercedes team.

Everything you can do I can do better.

“It’s not tactical,” Horner said, per The Race. “It’s based on performance and what we’re seeing through our simulation tools.

“Obviously the car looks quite visibly different in certain areas to last year. Only the stopwatch will tell, but in the virtual world we wouldn’t have committed it to design if we didn’t feel it was better.”

Of course Red Bull Racing’s adaptations are notably changed from the way Mercedes used them. The team has managed to incorporate the vertical radiators into those in-vogue heavily undercut sidepods with which it set the trend in 2022. The high shoulders are more tapered and better included the overall flow of the car in a way last year’s Mercedes revisions never were.

And the upper bodywork of these ground-effect cars is responsible for only a minority of the machine’s overall aerodynamic performance. Most of the work is still done by the floor, which remains hidden from view.

But with Red Bull Racing’s development time limited in the last 12 months — both by its punishment for breaking the 2021 cost cap and because of the equalisation rules on wind tunnel use — the RB20 demonstrates that F1’s leading team is unafraid to innovate on its own ideas as well as those of its chief rivals.

“I’m quite happy with the direction that they chose,” reigning champion Verstappen said, per ESPN. “I saw the drawings I think in Abu Dhabi, the last race, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s quite different in a way.’ They’ve not been conservative.

“I think what I like about the team is that we had a great package, but they took the chance to really go all-out, I would say, and try to make it better.

“Time will tell if it’s really, really good.”

THE ONE BIG QUESTION STILL TO BE ANSWERED AFTER DOMINANT 2023

Of course the proof of Red Bull Racing’s work will be in the lap times, but it would be a shock to discover the team has taken a step backwards.

Red Bull Racing spent hardly any time developing last year’s car, and Horner said it had switched focus to 2024 before the mid-season break. You could hardly call this a rushed design.

While few expect RBR to be able to emulate last year’s almost perfect win record, it will almost certainly be the team to beat again in 2023.

That in turn will refocus the spotlight on Sergio Pérez, whose limp end to last season generated plenty of question marks about his place at the all-conquering team.

Pérez is out of contract at the end of the season — along with as many as 12 other drivers.

While the Mexican enjoyed a career-high finish of second in the drivers championship in 2023, he scored fewer points than he did in 2022, thanks largely to his anaemic nine-podium haul across the 22-race season, including just two rostrums after the mid-season break.

Pérez pinned some of his troubles on the car moving outside his comfort zone with the few developments it did receive. While Verstappen thrives with a live rear axle, Pérez prefers a more docile car. While the team denied favouritism, it’s natural for development to gravitate around a driver able to get more from each package.

Still, technical director Pierre Wache admitted the team had to bear some of the responsibility for Pérez losing his way.

“The problem is that the car has some weaknesses, and it’s how you deal with these weaknesses,” he told the F1 website. “And sometimes it’s not because you’re worst or best [as a driver].

“Sometimes, a weakness, you cannot deal with it, and it’s what we try to understand with Sergio, to make sure we give him the tool and the car to be able to cope with that. But you know, it’s an engineer’s job more than for him, I would say.”

The question Pérez will be desperate for an answer to is: does the 2024 car have some of those weaknesses ironed out from it?

“[I’m] just staying open, with an open approach,” he said, per Planet F1. “There’s not a magic bullet that is right or wrong.

“It’s just staying open through the season and making sure that we get that right path for a good pace and then just develop from there.

“I think more than that as we had some issues as the car was developing.

“The way we were trying to improve those issues meant that we were just taking performance out of the car and not necessarily going faster. Making it more comfortable is not necessarily faster.”

F1’S MOST SOUGHT-AFTER SEAT

Another season of underperformance, particularly if the field closes in behind Red Bull Racing, will put Pérez under considerable pressure.

If McLaren and Ferrari consistently challenge Red Bull Racing this year — even without being enduring title threats — another year like 2023 would almost certainly see Pérez lose second in the drivers standings and put the constructors championship at risk.

His rivals for the seat are already lining up.

Daniel Ricciardo is the most heavily touted for the drive, having returned to Formula 1 in the second half of last season with the express intention of reuniting with Red Bull Racing.

The Australian’s seven-race AlphaTauri cameo was inconclusive, but some notable highlights — fourth on the grid and seventh in the race in Mexico — alluded to the promise that old Ricciardo was still in there waiting to be unlocked.

Though it was much earlier in the Dutchman’s career, Ricciardo was a good match for Verstappen during their time as teammates. At a minimum Horner found his performance during a tyre test in last year’s RB19 very convincing of his potential to return to the senior team.

If the 34-year-old can seize his chance with RB this year with some strong performance, he’ll be first in line.

Inversely Yuki Tsunoda, though apparently perpetually underrated by Red Bull management, could put himself into the frame by comprehensively beating Ricciardo over the season, particularly if he can eliminate the unforced errors from his game.

Carlos Sainz is also on the market after Lewis Hamilton ousted him from Ferrari for 2025, and the Spaniard’s historical Red Bull links could see him forge a reunion of his own.

Sainz and Verstappen had a testy relationship as juniors at Toro Rosso, though much of the tension appeared to be down to their racing parents rather than the drivers themselves.

The two-time race winner has proved himself since leaving the program, particularly with his three competitive years at Ferrari, and his analytical approach to his craft would surely see him swim rather than sink when challenged by Verstappen’s immense speed.

Alex Albon has been rumoured to have been contacted by Red Bull Racing over the off-season too. The team still held him in high regard even after dropping him at the end of 2020, recognising that he had been promoted to the team too soon. Having established himself at Williams, a second chance at Milton Keynes would be just deserts for the Thai driver.

And though it would be difficult to imagine, Fernando Alonso will be on the market and surely testing the waters if Aston Martin can’t make another step towards the front. Red Bull Racing doesn’t need an alpha like the two-time championship-winning Spaniard, but the blockbuster appeal may be cause to think twice.

“Obviously people are aware of the challenge that I’m facing,” Pérez said. “It’s a massive challenge. Max is a driver that really takes the maximum out of you, so it’s a great challenge and one I’m looking forward to massively.

“If we are performing well on track, there will be plenty of opportunities out there. That’s my main target and my main motivation for this year — to really perform well.

“I still think that I’m at my best. I still have a lot to give. Being part of the Red Bull family for four years, it’s a massive bonus. It’s a great opportunity.

“I’m still young and still motivated, so there’s still a long way ahead.”

How long is up to him.