Adrian Newey warns Red Bull: Ferrari and Mercedes won't be resting

Red Bull Racing team’s Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey reckons Ferrari and Mercedes will be back competing at the front in 2023. The British car design genius believes that despite a limitation on their wind tunnel testing, their team could approach the development of their 2023 car more smartly.

Speaking in a Red Bull Racing team interview, the Briton said:

“Ferrari won’t be resting. They will be kind of sorting out where their weak areas. They had a couple of reliability problems, they obviously made a couple of pit wall mistakes. So they’ll be right back. Of course, you obviously saw Mercedes starting with a car that was quite a long way off the pace and evolving it to the point they won the last race but one. So we know they will be right there. So it’s going to be a tough year for sure.”

According to Newey, Red Bull’s rivals Ferrari and Mercedes will not sit back next season. He believes that their Maranello and Brackley rivals will look to improve their cars enough to challenge for the 2023 title. While Ferrari struggled with strategy and reliability issues that thwarted their campaign, Mercedes struggled with a challenging car concept. As far as their car and the reduced wind tunnel testing time after the budget cap is concerned, Newey felt they could approach development more wisely. The British technical chief was unfazed about the reduction of wind tunnel time affecting their car development significantly.

On the reduced wind tunnel time and its effect on the 2023 car, Newey said:

“The reduction of wind tunnel testing means we can therefore evaluate less different components, less different ideas. If we’re really smart and always put on the right things, on the model, then of course it doesn’t make much difference.”

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Red Bull technical chief reckons the RB18 is their best act so far

Newey feels the RB18 which won Max Verstappen his second title and Red Bull another constructor’s championship this year has been one of their best yet. With a cost cap in effect, the British veteran designer feels the RB18 has been one of the best cars designed at Milton Keynes.

Speaking about the car, Newey said:

“Statistically, the RB18 has been our best car. A car that we can be very proud of. When you have limited resources, if you're putting research and development into that car then that's research and development you're not putting into the brand new car for the new regulations. We focused on trying to get the fundamentals right.”

The Red Bull RB18 dominated the 2022 season with 17 wins in 22 races, with Max Verstappen alone clinching 15 wins and Sergio Perez claiming two. With a dominant season statistically, their 2022 machinery was definitely superior compared to their rivals cars. After a glitchy start and four retirements at the beginning of the season, the RB18 was stripped off its weight, one of the reasons that made it evolve into a dominant winning machine by the end of the year.