RED BULL’S CATCH-UP CULTURE

WHEN IT COMES TO IN-SEASON development of a Formula 1 car, Red

Bull is capable of great things. But too often it leaves itself with a mountain to climb at the start of the year.

During its time as a frontrunning team, and dating back to its emergence as a contender in 2009, Red Bull has only ended a season further away from the ultimate pace than it started it once, in ’16. That’s an impressive achievement, but in the V6-hybrid era it has repeatedly given itself too much ground to make up at the beginning of the year. The graph below uses supertimes (based on the fastest single lap by each car at each race weekend, expressed as a percentage of the fastest) to show this trend.

There is a common theme in Adrian Newey’s excellent new book, How to build

a car, even during the dominant Red Bull years, where he speaks of coming up with new ideas, but having to win over the rest of his colleagues in the design office when time was tight to have the car ready in time for pre-season.

One such example was in getting ready for the return of KERS for 2011, when Newey was convinced that going for a different battery location would bring a big gain in performance. He pitched it to chief designer Rob Marshall, whose reaction “was a deep breath”. After discussing it with the rest of the team, Marshall came back and told Newey “everybody agrees, it’s just not possible”.

Newey persisted, certain with what he considers a brave but also “irresponsible” belief that he could make his idea work. While he was right in the end, giving Red Bull a “baked in advantage” while the rules were stable, he also admits “it took longer than I hoped”.

Perhaps that created a culture within Red Bull of always pushing up to – and even beyond – the perceived limits of a car’s potential, no matter the consequences.