Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has revealed how a 20kg weight reduction was the “fundamental” enabler of the domination it enjoyed during the 2023 Formula 1 season.
The Austrian outfit proved virtually untouchable throughout the past campaign, claiming victory in all but one race to secure both championships with rounds to spare.
Despite Red Bull ceasing development on its 2023 challenger as early as August, the team’s primary rivals were unable to overhaul the deficit by the conclusion of the season.
Horner divulged that the all-conquering RB19 was predominantly carried over from the side’s 2022 car, which prevailed in 10 of the last 11 races en route to a double title win.
But having begun the latest regulation cycle with an overweight machine, Horner issues that Red Bull’s extended advantage this year derived from cutting out that excess weight.
“What you have to remember is that with the RB19, there were a large number of components that came from the RB18: gearbox, a large percentage of the suspension, and half of the chassis. It was effectively a cut-and-shut for this year,” Horner explained when asked about the reasons for Red Bull’s superiority in 2023.
“The most significant thing that we were able to address was the weight. We were so late going on to the new regs in 2021, because of that championship battle that the car in 2022 was a bit on the chunky side.
“So, we managed to get 20 kilos out of the car coming into this year and tidy up some of the imperfections.
“But there were a great many carryover parts and some of the components have actually won, in Max’s case, 19 races this year and 15 last year, so the combination of the two: 34 races.”
Horner added that Red Bull had identified that a substantial step forward could be made this season by removing weight from every single area of the team’s 2022 car.
“It was a little bit everywhere,” he noted. “It was not one specific area that you could take the weight off. It was just marginal gains in all areas.
“I think that was probably the fundamental difference between the 2022 car and the 2023 car.”
Pressed on if Red Bull had used an overweight car to achieve last season’s success, Horner replied: “Yeah. We were carrying that deficit for a large percentage of the year.”
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