STELLA: I was like, “Wow,” when I saw the Red Bull RB20 Formula One car for the first time.
Principal of the McLaren Formula 1 team Andrea Stella acknowledges that his initial thought upon witnessing the drastically altered Red Bull RB20 was simply, “Wow.”
The Milton Keynes team was praised by the Italian for their “bravery” in implementing such a significant alteration to a package that was so successful the previous year.
Red Bull’s significant improvement for this season has taken opponents by surprise, as most of them concentrated on figuring out what made the RB19 so competitive in the previous year, ultimately producing cars that heavily borrowed from the champion. Red Bull has changed its course in the past few years.
“Wow, they really were brave in changing some of the shapes that made that car so successful last year,” Stella remarked upon first seeing the vehicle.
“I believe they had such an advantage last year that, in terms of timing, it allowed them confidence to take some risks because they can be taken early on to truly assess whether they work or not.
As I’ve already mentioned, there is innovation, but a lot of it is in millimeters according to these constraints, despite what we may observe macroscopically. Furthermore, a lot of the labor that occurs between the car’s underbelly and the ground is hidden from view.
Stella and McLaren CEO Zak Brown have both expressed in the past that they were concerned Red Bull will be able to make significant progress in 2024 because the club was able to concentrate its R&D efforts on upgrading the RB19 during the previous season.
Stella concurred that Red Bull had utilized its resources to create a revolutionary new package, confirming that their worries had come true.
He stated, “I would say there are two elements.” “First of all, there is a strong evolutionary element to automotive design that undoubtedly took decades to evolve.
“And I believe that at this point, Zak and I were discussing how Red Bull hadn’t created parts for the 2023 car that were unveiled the previous year.
“And the actual performance is the second component. They appear to be highly powerful. Thus, it appears that the design goals they set out to accomplish also produced what, in my opinion, is mostly aerodynamic performance.”
Last year, McLaren showed an amazing rate of improvement, and Stella is still optimistic that the team can advance with the MCL38 and, at the very least, catch up to Red Bull.
As for our own progress, let’s just say that we appear to be able to maintain the gradient of development that we began last year and that brought us to the creation of the launch car, Austria, and Singapore, the speaker stated.
Therefore, even though I can’t guarantee we’ll get there, I’m growing more hopeful that we’ll be able to compete. It goes without saying that we will never catch up to Red Bull if they continue to grow at their current rate.
What matters is that this progress can be maintained over time. Furthermore, we have not yet reached the 12-month mark in our own journey, if you consider our final voyage—at least following the technical reevaluation and team reorganization.
From this perspective, the voyage is brief, but from a development one, I’m encouraged by what I observe. In the early races of the season, hopefully, we can have it on the MCL38.
