The reduction of nearly 20kg in weight from its 2022 car was key behind Red Bull's unrivalled success in 2023, reckons Christian Horner.
Red Bull followed up winning both titles in 2022, by defending their titles, claiming 21 of 22 Grand Prix and five of six Sprint wins across the season, ending with 860 championship points and a first-ever one-two in the Drivers' championship.
The RB19 has been lauded alongside the likes of the McLaren MP4/4 of 1988, the Ferrari F2004 and Mercedes' 2020 W11 as one of the greatest cars of all time, with Horner explaining how a massive weight reduction was key behind the near clean-sweep of wins.
Viewed by others:
Horner on Red Bull's biggest secret
"What you have to remember is that with the RB19, there were a large number of components that came from the RB18: gearbox, a large percentage of the suspension, and half of the chassis," Horner explained to media.
"It was effectively a cut-and-shut for this year.
"The most significant thing that we were able to address was the weight.
"We were so late going on to the new regs in 2021, because of that championship battle, that the car in 2022 was a bit on the chunky side.
"We managed to get 20 kilos out of the car coming into this year and tidy up some of the imperfections.
"There were a great many carryover parts and some of the components have actually won, in Max's case, 19 races this year and 15 last year, so the combination of the two is 34 races.
"It was not one specific area that you could take the weight off. It was just marginal gains in all areas.
"I think that was probably the fundamental difference between the 2022 car and the 2023 car."
Most read
In this article
Join the conversation!