No Formula 1 team adapted to the championship’s 2022 regulations overhaul better than Red Bull Racing, which swept the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles with the dominant Red Bull RB18.
The team won 17 out of 22 races, topping the table by 205 points ahead of Ferrari, leaving its rivals wondering how on earth they could close the gap that had opened up. By the end of the second year of ground effect racing, the gap was even bigger.
The RB18 was Red Bull’s answer to the regulations in its first form, but the RB19 built on that strong foundation and went on to statistically surpass its predecessor in 2023. The difference between Red Bull and the second best team, this time Mercedes, more than doubled, to 451 points. The team won all but one race, and wrapped up the Constructors’ crown with six rounds to go.
The fact Red Bull achieved those impressive numbers, despite a penalty for its breach of the cost cap rules that reduced its already restricted aerodynamic testing allowance (for being last year’s champion) by 10 per cent, was even more remarkable.
According to Red Bull’s head of performance engineering, Ben Waterhouse, the first season of the ground effect rules gave the Milton Keynes-based team a ‘clearer vision’ for how to approach its design of the Honda-powered RB19, which will go down as one of the most successful F1 cars in history.
Rolling back the years
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