‘Nearly’ is not enough

Red Bull bounded into the 2020 Formula 1 season full of confidence that it was going to fight for the world championship. A stable set of regulations meant there would be no curveballs like in 2019, when new front-wing rules hindered its prospects with the RB15. There was consistency of engine manufacturer, with Honda hoping to build on the momentum that had delivered the partnership three wins over the previous season. And in Max Verstappen, the team had a maturing superstar who was ready to take on the challenge of becoming a thorn in the side of Lewis Hamilton.

To help ensure it hit the ground running with its new RB16, Red Bull also changed the philosophy of how it approached the build-up to the season. Rather than waiting until the last minute to unleash its car, thereby maximising the amount of development time possible, it chose instead to sign things off much earlier. It was hoped that this would be beneficial in ensuring the team fully understood the car, and wasn’t playing catch-up in the early races while dealing with last-minute