Max Verstappen has reacted to the design copies from both Ferrari and Mercedes, joking that Red Bull might turn up "without sidepods" in a bid to hide their car design secrets. Ferrari was the latest team to introduce a design that is similar to Red Bull in Barcelona, after abandoning their 'bath tub' concept which they carried over from 2022 to their SF-23. Mercedes also elected to get rid of their 'zero sidepod' philosophy in exchange for a more conventional design at Monaco, as they search for answers for their lack of pace at the start of the season. When asked about the updates from rival teams which take inspiration from the dominant RB19, Verstappen replied: "I think our next upgrade will be without sidepods! So then everyone can go back to that!" When Sergio Perez crashed during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, the recovery crane which hoisted his car up gave teams a glimpse at the RB19 floor. Rivals were stunned at the complexity of its design, which is said to the main secret to their success. Verstappen added: "It's not only the sidepods, it's a lot of things that have to come together. And I'm not even the aero specialist."
Verstappen: Red Bull 'hit the ground running' on 2022 regulations
Red Bull has comfortably shown that they can finish over 20 seconds ahead of their nearest rivals at six races so far this season. Verstappen says the team managed to 'hit the ground running' with the new regulations that came into effect into 2022, which was a legacy of their learnings from previous years. "I think we learned a lot over the years, and now with the new regulations we hit the ground running and we understood what was going on and that helps a lot," he explained. "You can immediately focus on other things and hopefully, of course, we can keep that momentum going because everyone is pushing very hard to catch up. But also from our side, we are never satisfied, we always want more."
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