Red Bull's Paul Monaghan and Pierre Wache have provided an insight into the impact that the intense 2021 championship battle had on this season's prospects. The infamous 2021 championship went down to the final race, with both Red Bull and Mercedes continuing to develop their cars and target the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships. With a host of regulation changes coming in for 2022, many suspected an increased focus on 2021 would hinder the team's chances of competitiveness for the following year. Red Bull defied this expectation by taking emphatic double-championship success in 2022. In an exclusive interview with RacingNews365 , Red Bull's Chief Engineer Monaghan conceded that the extensive efforts in 2021 created a fear that the RB18 would be heavily compromised. "We were quite worried, because obviously we came [to Abu Dhabi] for a final race shootout, so it was a massive push with [continuing] the 2021 car, which didn't help," admitted Monaghan. "Resource that would have been on the 2022 car remained on the 2021 car longer than we had originally planned. "Given regulation changes, finite resources, then we were worried we had damaged the 2022 car." Monaghan believed that Red Bull's competitive 2022 car was a testament to ability and efficiency of the team. "It's an indication of the diligent work and the skilled work that went on within all the disciplines of the factory. So, research, design, manufacture, testing, realisation, all of it," added Monaghan. "We were at least as efficient as anybody else, and we were very privileged to have a very good car from the outset."
Wache: 2021 battle compromised 2022 car
Despite Red Bull starting the season with a pace deficit to Ferrari, the Milton Keynes team developed their car into the class of the 2022 field, securing 17 wins. Once early reliability concerns had been addressed, the team were able to focus on closing the gap to Ferrari and out-developing them, which helped make up for their lack of 2021 development time. Speaking exclusively to RacingNews365.com , Red Bull Technical Director Pierre Wache pointed out the main drawback of the hastily developed car. "It was developed in a very short period of time, which is one of the reasons why it's quite heavy," Wache explained. Wache also revealed that Red Bull chose to make the car "not picky", meaning the car could be easily adjustable for various track configurations, and the main resource limitations they faced. "It's not like we started late, but the resources we put on this car code were compromised based on what happened [the championship battle]," added Wache. "I think the main compromise was more of a resource of people and wind tunnel time."
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