Red Bull have unveiled the RB20 – the car they hope they will defend their double world championship titles with over the 2024 season.
The tenth and final car on this year’s grid to be unveiled, the world champions revealed the RB20 at their factory in Milton Keynes.Last year’s Red Bull’s RB19 dominated the 2023 season, taking an unprecedented 21 grand prix victories as the team won all but one round of last year’s championship.
The new RB20 naturally evolves on last year’s incredibly successful model, featuring a largely unchanged livery. However, the car does include some revisions of note, including an aggressive new front wing design and a modified rear engine cover that appears to be influenced by the design of last year’s Mercedes W14.
Despite its predecessor being the most successful Formula 1 car ever designed, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner insists that the RB20 is not a recycling of last year’s successful concept.
“You can see it’s an evolution of last year’s car,” Horner told media including RaceFans. “But as our 20th version, the guys haven’t been conservative. You can see they’ve been quite aggressive in certain areas, still pushing the boundaries.
“We’re conscious that our opponents are still going to be pushing very hard. We’ve seen a few cars being released that look similar in theme to what we launched last year. So you can see all the men and women behind the scenes have been working very hard and some of the detail on the car is absolutely exquisite.”
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The car has already run for the first time at a private filming day at Silverstone ahead of next week’s sole pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit ahead of the opening round of the year.
Pictures: 2024 Red Bull RB20
This article will be updated
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Alex (@almill13)
15th February 2024, 20:09
Definitely looks different than the competitors.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
15th February 2024, 20:11
Everyone building RB19 sidepod inlets and madman Newey out here just ditching them altogether.
PacificPR (@streydt)
15th February 2024, 20:22
Yeah, love it – also pleasantly surprised by Ferrari, McLaren and Merc – some interesting design concepts all-round (and probably some more will pop-up during testing). Still think the key to unlock Red-Bull-level performance is in the suspension & floor combination and has less to do with the sidepod design.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
16th February 2024, 0:12
The sidepod does generate some kind of skirt effect so its rather important
OhNoes1999
16th February 2024, 1:05
Not necessarily. In all Mercedes sims the no sidepods had it running at optimum speeds but they just couldn’t translate it to track, if Newey’s managed this it’s going to be a bit of a nose rub for Mercedes initial 22 concept.
PacificPR (@streydt)
16th February 2024, 7:24
Of course every element plays it’s part and one can’t function without the other. But I just find it fascinating that everyone assumed that the sidepod-design was the key element to Red Bull’s performance (teams copying it etc) and now Red Bull has come up with a different approach – while most teams have finally caught up with the “old” design. It’s one of those things I love about F1 and I am very curious how things will work out!
SteveP
16th February 2024, 8:08
I seem to recall a comment from Mercedes that the main problem with the “zero” sidepod design was that it was too efficient in the generation of down force and that the suspension couldn’t handle the tendency to go too low, stall and rise (porpoise) so they had to run it non-optimally and generate downforce from wings and suffer drag.
So, back to your comment about suspension there.
Back in the previous ground effect era they had suspension designs, now banned, that dealt with that bounce.
This set of regs was probably deliberately done with those bans in mind and setting a design challenge to do the job without the previous fixes.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
16th February 2024, 10:23
@steve pretty sure merc had to run a larger rear wing on avg.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th February 2024, 20:11
I like the front-end, monocoque, & side shapes.
Moshambles (@moshambles)
15th February 2024, 20:12
I’m scared
Paul (@frankjaeger)
15th February 2024, 20:19
Looks sleek and fast. That shoulder everyone is running with is really clear on the RB
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
15th February 2024, 20:23
Well, it’s an aggressive journey, innit? Not very pretty to me – Broad shoulders that squish the livery, and wider and flatter like the Ferrari on the nose (“front nose” to go with the “rear engine cover”?)
SadF1fan
15th February 2024, 20:40
Interesting development. Lots of design elements taken from the W14. The longer nose, the wing like structure over the sidepod entrance and the broad shoulders are all similar elements from the W14.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
15th February 2024, 22:08
the use of more diffuse angles around the radiator portions is interesting, IE not looking for sharp edges that could cause turbulence and have a more holistic affect on the bigger airfoil in general. I think last years car looks faster though. Will be interesting to see what it looks like in through fast corners.
stefano (@alfa145)
15th February 2024, 23:23
what an absolutely gorgeous machine
Tristan (@skipgamer)
16th February 2024, 0:58
Look at that rear end…
I’m no aerodynamicist but logic dictates they’re pushing a lot of air down through to that rear suspension. Such a clear channel there where as last year and in other cars this year it’s all a bit bulbous and ugly around there. I wonder if that’s due to a revelation or just being more transparent about what they’ve always known.
Assuming there’s some weight behind that bodywork (is it exhaust?) and it’s not just an aero device, pushing that higher up goes against some solid principles and just goes to show how much that aero is worth.
Also the sidepod is looking more like an aircraft wing than ever before… Fascinating stuff.
SteveR (@stever)
16th February 2024, 2:45
Looking at the technical regulations there’s not much latitude as to the exhaust. What are you suggesting?
Tristan (@skipgamer)
16th February 2024, 3:10
not suggesting anything, moreso trying to understand that curve upwards at the back… if there’s weight behind it and if they’re putting that weight higher just to push the air down back there, that doesn’t make much sense to me…
Tristan (@skipgamer)
16th February 2024, 3:37
To put it perhaps clearer, with regards to raising the center of gravity
Robert
16th February 2024, 4:13
I think those shoulders, the rearwards extension of the halo if you will, are hollow. Used to channel out the warm radiator air at the back, and therefor very lightweight.
SteveP
16th February 2024, 8:14
Is it me? Or does anyone else notice that the displayed item has not one single “shark gill” vent slot visible?
I thought the Merc was unusual in only showing three small slots.
OK, wait for the real car that appears on track…
Robert
16th February 2024, 20:28
No I thought about that too, I guess Newey doesn’t like gills cause they mess up a clean flow. They might add some for the hottest races, but I suspect they try to vent all air at the back.
In the side view picture you can see one small opening, like a single gill, down below and just behind the RedBull logo. But that doesn’t really count, on the whole the RedBull is clearly trying to avoid gills compared to the other teams.
PacificPR (@streydt)
16th February 2024, 7:30
It’s brilliant isn’t it. I can’t wait for testing to begin and we can see more details.
OOliver
16th February 2024, 5:02
Redbull have just done what Mercedes could have done when they came up with their zero pod concept
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
16th February 2024, 11:01
Purely on aesthetics I don’t like it that much. The livery is pretty dull to me compared to some other cars. However, I am not technical but the design does look very neat, with smooth lines and fast.
I don’t imagine that it’s going to be too slow either ;-) I do hope they don’t win 20+ races again though.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
16th February 2024, 11:18
Do we need to wait for the first qualifying session of the season to hear the typical cliché of “The championship is over !” ?
SteveP
16th February 2024, 11:54
Apparently not :)
Whatever else may turn up, that Merc wins the understated style award.
I’ve yet to see the stats of the correlation of style to performance though.
Robert
16th February 2024, 20:34
I would guess the fastest cars are almost always perceived as better looking. What would be interesting is to compare how, historically, that perception has changed from before and after the performance has been revealed on track.
Sergey Martyn
17th February 2024, 4:48
I never doubt that Adrian Newey is a genius and a best F1 designer ever but RB20 just blew my mind/ It is so darn beautiful it’s eerie.