Red Bull chief engineer on "pain" team went through to secure Max Verstappen's first F1 title

Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan says his team went through a “painful” process to manage the difficulties brought on by the 2021 regulations. It's this painstaking process, the Briton feels, that enabled Max Verstappen to clinch his maiden F1 world title.

Speaking about the team’s performance throughout the 2021 season, in a post-season interview with RN365, Monaghan said:

“I think all said and done, the team effort was rewarded with a quick car in 2021. Everybody’s skills, everybody’s enthusiasm, and everybody’s willingness to change, adapt, iterate.”

“(The team went) through a little bit more pain than we perhaps were going to endure with a largely frozen car – that was probably the most satisfying part.”

Monaghan says that he’s proud of the various departments at Milton Keynes for producing a car that was competitive and reliable from the get-go, despite the “challenging” aerodynamic regulations.

Throughout much of the turbo-hybrid era, two factors have held Red Bull back from mounting a serious title challenge against Mercedes. The first is the lack of a “solid” engine partner that could deliver on the performance and reliability targets.

In addition to a lackluster power unit, the team also had a reputation for arriving at the start of the season with a slow car. It would then aggressively develop the car throughout the season to end up being the fastest.

This meant the Austrian constructor often ended up being the third wheel, despite challenging for wins and pole positions, while Mercedes and Ferrari often battled it out for the championship.

In 2021, the Milton Keynes-based team was in a unique position wherein the new aerodynamic regulations slightly favored their “high-rake” philosophy. The team, however, had to work hard to exploit the opportunity, as their 2020 challenger — which was effectively carried over to 2021 — was inherently flawed.

The RB16 was tricky to set up and suffered from such rear instability at low speeds that even Max Verstappen couldn’t cope with it at times. Fortunately, the new floor regulations helped the team sort out their issues with stability. They, however, had to work hard to optimize other areas that were being affected by the regulation change.

Their efforts through the winter were rewarded in Bahrain when the team's RB16B had a slight edge over the Mercedes W13. The gap, however, was still very narrow, and both Verstappen and the team had to make the most out of it.

When Verstappen botched his opportunity with an impatient move on Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain, he learned from his mistake and proceeded to exploit the car’s advantage to the maximum from Imola onwards.

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Paul Monaghan feels Red Bull’s constructors' championship loss “saddest moment” of season

Red Bull failed to stop rival Mercedes from winning an eighth consecutive constructors' title towards the end of the 2021 season. That, according to chief engineer Paul Monaghan, is the “saddest moment” of the team’s 2021 campaign.

Speaking to RN365 in a post-season interview, Monaghan said:

“If I look back on what has been perhaps most, not disappointing, but perhaps frustrating, is that we couldn’t challenge as hard in the Constructors’ Championship.”

“Everybody’s efforts had that gone in we’d earned a better shot at challenging for the Constructors’ Championship and should have been closer come to the culmination of it all in Abu Dhabi. Alas, that wasn’t to be, and that’s probably the saddest bit of it all.”

Red Bull built up a solid gap to Mercedes during the first half of the season, courtesy of Max Verstappen’s domination and a few good finishes for Sergio Perez. Perez’s inconsistency throughout the season, however, and especially in the last few races when the Mercedes W12 emerged as the superior car, proved costly for the Milton Keynes-based outfit.