Red Bull surprised rivals ‘didn’t do as good a job’ despite ‘average’ RB19

Michelle Foster 17 Aug 2023 7:30 AM

Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Waché is “surprised” Mercedes and Ferrari dropped the ball this season despite going up against an “average” RB19.

As Formula 1 entered the summer break, Red Bull all but had both championship titles locked in such has been their advantage this season with the RB19 winning 12 from 12.

In the hands of Max Verstappen, the car has been almost unbeatable with the reigning World Champion cruising to 10 wins and a 125-point lead over his team-mate Sergio Perez in the Drivers’ standings.

Red Bull expected a three-way fight with Mercedes and Ferrari

However, it’s his winning margins that have truly taken the wind out of the competition with Verstappen easily double figures ahead of the nearest non-Red Bull car at the chequered flag.

And all this in what Waché calls an “average” car.

“It is average good for everything, which is creating a good car,” he toldMotorsport.com. “It’s not very good in one aspect.

“Why we think it is good because we are quicker than others, but fundamentally I would say we didn’t do a fantastic job. We did a good job.

“I was more surprised by others, who didn’t do as good a job I would say. That is why our expectations were different from the beginning of the year.

“我不想被温和等等,但是当you see some teams are able in three races to gain one second per lap, it means if you put the stuff together, it will be decent. It doesn’t require two years of development.”

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But that average good has led to a car that is without a doubt one of the best ever with the RB19 on track for a season’s whitewash.

That was something Red Bull didn’t see coming with Waché saying they expected they’d be in a three-way fight this season with Mercedes and Ferrari in the mix.

“We didn’t anticipate that,” he said. “We anticipated we might be in the midst of the fight for the win with two teams, Mercedes and Ferrari.

“We thought our advantage at the end of last year was not strong enough. And the change of regulation on the floor, raising the floor edge and the kick line, would bring back those teams.

“Then the loss of performance we thought we had during the winter, especially after October with the reduction of wind tunnel time we had, it would be tricky to achieve success. So yeah, it was a surprise at the beginning of the season.”

Red Bull lead theConstructors’ Championshipwith 503 points to Mercedes’ 247.