How Red Bull's dominance helped save budget cap conundrum

Red Bull won its sixth Constructors' title at the Japanese Grand Prix and Max Verstappen will be able to become World Champion for the third consecutive time at this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix.

Whilst these successes indicate the dominance of the RB19 since the start of the season, it is clear that the engineers of the Milton Keynes-based team have developed the car constantly and that the introduction of further upgrades will continue in the final six races of the campaign, with the ultimate goal to lay the foundations for the RB20.

This is an approach aimed at maintaining the current technical advantage over rival teams, based on the awareness that the level of competitiveness of the teams is constantly changing, as demonstrated recently as Ferrari secured a race win in Singapore whilst McLaren has significantly improved its own performance.

Red Bull had clearly demonstrated its strength last season, which has already proven sufficient in all the races held so far this term except in Singapore.

The developments introduced on the RB19 were interventions in specific areas and planned over time - Team Principal Christian Horner declared in Japan that with the regulations remaining stable from last term, the team has used the same gearbox as last season and maintained the chassis concept, different only in terms of weight reduction.

In essence, thanks to the performance of the RB19 over its rivals, Red Bull was not affected in the slightest by the restrictions on wind tunnel tests - a penalty that was triggered due to exceeding the limit of 2021 budget cap.

This allowed the staff - directed by Technical Director Pierre Waché - to continue with the development of the RB19, without having to concentrate resources only on next season.

The team brought two versions of the floor between Singapore and Suzuka introducing a new profile of the side edge.

Red Bull is therefore in a full evolving process - not so much to increase the current performance, but to consolidate the current advantage and make recovery by the other teams extremely complex.

In short, it seems evident how a successful project from the beginning constitutes an 'investment' that lasts over time, allowing the use of available resources without affecting the level of future competitiveness.

The RB19 side inlet upgrade introduced in Hungary, whilst not dramatically needed, was functional to maintain the high efficiency of the aero concept of the car.

The DRS efficiency was one of the most effective weapons of this car since its debut, creating a huge advantage over Red Bull's opponents.

The floor edge - the last change of which was introduced in Singapore and then implemented in Suzuka - is an update with a focus already turned to next year's car design.