Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has remarked that the team’s striking technical innovations for 2024 will now hand its Formula 1 rivals “something else to copy”.
The Milton-Keynes-based squad had been expected to adopt a process of evolution with the RB20 after its predecessor stormed to 21 wins from 22 races in the last season.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner had predicted that several teams would take the approach of resembling the design scheme crafted on its dominant RB19 challenger.
However, Red Bull has stunned the competition with distinguishable refinements to its latest machine, including a sidepod structure reminiscent of the ‘zeropod’ solution Mercedes abandoned last year.
Red Bull’s extensive changes have appeared to not derail its momentum, with Max Verstappen topping the times on the opening day of pre-season testing by over a second.
With the Dutchman also racking up a momentous total of 142 laps, Marko was delighted with Red Bull’s blistering start to the third season under the latest regulations.
“There is always a risk when you change concepts. Just look at Mercedes, they had their problems with the previous concept,” he told Motorsport.com’s Dutch outlet.
“But our car worked from the very first lap, we are very proud of that and of course also happy with it. Reliability was incredibly good.”
Lando Norris wound up as Red Bull’s nearest challenger, with McLaren touted to be a potential threat to the reigning champions after its remarkable turnaround last term.
However, Marko believes that both McLaren and Ferrari, who ended third and seventh with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, were not in the same ballpark as the Red Bull.
Meanwhile, Mercedes opted to dedicate their testing programme to compiling mileage, with George Russell accruing 121 laps but sitting almost three seconds off the pace.
“From what I saw, Ferrari also had more problems with the tyres than we did. The McLaren also seems a little more nervous than our car,” the Austrian, 80, assessed.
“I don’t know what Mercedes did today, although they will at least do something are faster than what they have shown.
“Anyway, we can at least work towards the race weekend with confidence.
Marko believes that Red Bull has caught the opposition unaware with its whole alterations for 2024, quipping that other teams will have something new to replicate.
“How can I put it: all the cars now actually look like our car from last year,” he added. “That means they now have something else to copy!
“I don’t think other teams expected us to come up with something like this last winter.”
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