Red Bull F1 designer Adrian Newey says he felt they “missed a loophole” when they saw Mercedes’ F1 ‘zero pod’ concept.
Adrian Newey was a sharp critic of the new regulations. However, his thinking changed as the work progressed. The new generation of F1 cars demanded more from engineers than expected, and the Mercedes F1 concept surprised even veterans like Newey.
Adrian Newey, who has worked in F1 since 1980, joined Red Bull in 2006 via Fittipaldi, March, Williams and McLaren. In that time, the 63-year-old Niewie has witnessed eight major regulation changes.
According to Adrian Newey, the 2022 regulation change was the biggest since 1983. It completely overturned the aerodynamics of F1 cars and unearthed ground effect effects, which were banned in 1982.
Adrian Newey was disappointed when the new rules were drafted. But one of the biggest critics of the 2022 regulations has almost become a fan.
“I have to admit that I had to change my mind while working on these cars. The chassis and the front wing work in a very tight framework, but there are also areas that are surprisingly free. These includes the sidepods and the underbody.The different sidepod shapes are also easy for fans to distinguish, which is a good thing,” Adrian Newey told Auto Motor und Sport.
“It’s more exciting because the car is so new. We’re all going through a steep learning curve. Last year’s car was the product of a long development process. The regulations have been in place for years. There were always rule changes, but everything worked according to the same principles.”
Adrian Newey believes the new F1 regulations have achieved their goals. That must be true in that it makes it easier for the following drivers to follow and increases overtaking.
But the concern that one team will interpret the rules better than all others and disappear over the horizon remains unfulfilled. Red Bull Racing won 17 out of 22 races.
“At the beginning there were two teams at the same level, us and Ferrari, but towards the end of the season Mercedes got stronger. To be honest, I expected a bigger gap.”
The numbers prove Adrian Newey is right. Despite field fragmentation, the gap has shrunk significantly compared to before. At Austin, Suzuka or Abu Dhabi, the Q1 difference between 1st and 20th was between 1.4 and 2.0 seconds.
Adrian Newey has a surprising answer to the fact that a Ferrari with completely different sidepods was practically as fast as a Red Bull.
“So none of us are absolutely right, there has to be something better. You can never do things like the wing or separate the sidepods. Everything. works only as a package, Ferrari sidepods don’t fit our underbody and vice versa, it’s always an interaction between these elements.”
Adrian Newey expected some solutions to hit the market in the first attempt. It was already so in 1983.
“Mercedes really surprised me. We overlooked this loophole.”
Nonetheless, he doesn’t think Mercedes F1 will cause a wave of copies with its unusual car, but he also doesn’t feel they’ve reached a dead end.
“It’s hard to judge from the outside. Mercedes has gotten better and better over the past year. To be honest, I don’t have time to go into the details of the concept. Under the budget cap, I can’t afford this luxury anymore. Can not”
“That’s why we take the path that seems most profitable first. When it comes to Mercedes, only when a concept suddenly becomes a lasting success will everyone reach for a copy pen.”
Adrian Newey says it remains to be seen which of the emerging concepts will ultimately survive. The car is too new for that. Red Bull will therefore not undertake the experiment.
“We know our concept best, so we will continue to develop it. But I dare not say whether our method is the best. There is someone around the corner with a better idea. There are plenty of possibilities.”
“Where we’ll end up when developing our own concept is still unknown. Perhaps another concept, which today is still lagging behind, may have much greater development potential. ”
Adrian Newey also doesn’t rule out the possibility that someone will find a solution that no one is aware of at the moment.
“Think of the double diffuser. The floor-to-step transition loophole was always there. It just wasn’t discovered.”
Category: F1 / red bull / F1 machine / mercedes
