Red Bull has issued a menacing warning to its Formula 1 rivals, claiming it has already shifted attention onto its 2025 challenger.
The Milton Keynes-based squad enjoyed a highly dominant campaign last year, winning 21 out of the 22 races staged en route to double-championship glory.
The RB19 car that was retired at the end of last season sits as one of the most successful cars in the sport's history.
Max Verstappen set several new F1 records behind the wheel of the car, including the most consecutive wins and the most race victories in a single season.
Red Bull's large advantage over the competition allowed it to place focus on its successor earlier than rival teams.
As a result, the six-time World Champions are expected to be the favourites once again when the new campaign gets underway in Bahrain.
However, speaking to Racecar Engineering, Red Bull's Head of Performance Engineering Ben Waterhouse stated that focus is already on its 2025 car.
“The RB20 is at least six months old and we are already starting to shift our attention to the RB21, even though the season hasn’t started yet,” he said.
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Weaknesses
Red Bull's hope of completing a clean sweep of race victories, something that has never been achieved before in F1's history, were dashed when it underperformed in Singapore.
Although the strengths of the RB19 lifted it out of reach of the competition, Waterhouse asserted that there were clear weaknesses in the package.
“We were aware that the RB19 had considerable limitations,” he said.
“If we look back at Singapore, there were definitely weaknesses. There are areas we want to improve, whether it’s high-speed or low-speed performance.
“At the same time, [the car] had clear strengths, which we want to build on while at the same time trying to address the weaknesses.
“Because of this, we set clear targets quite far back during the RB19 development process for the RB20. In general, we managed to hit most of them.
“I wouldn’t say everyone is satisfied though, as there is still work to be done to try and improve on the RB19.”
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