Red Bull make ominous RB20 admission with ‘weaknesses’ of RB19 addressed

Red Bull is addressing the “considerable limitations” the dominant RB19 had, with some clear targets having already been hit.

Having won 21 of 22 Grands Prix, the Red Bull RB19 became Formula 1’s most dominant car ever – its win percentage eclipsing that of McLaren’s 1988 MP4/4 which lost just one race of the 16-race calendar that season.

But, in the eyes of Red Bull, there’s still plenty of room for improvement to make a quicker machine as its successor and, according to their latest status report, may have done just that.

Red Bull: RB19 had considerable limitations

While it may not appear so based on its win ratio, the RB19 was far less comfortable in certain racing scenarios than Red Bull would have liked. It was in one of these scenarios that the RB19 failed to show up one weekend, its sole defeat in Singapore, and it is a key weakness the Milton Keynes-based squad has aimed to address for RB20.

“We were aware that the RB19 had considerable limitations,” Ben Waterhouse, head of performance engineering at Red Bull, said in an interview with Racecar Engineering.

“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.”

Where RB19 fared well was in aerodynamic efficiency, with high levels of load with low levels of drag. This made it particularly potent at the likes of Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, and Suzuka – all of which Red Bull won with ease.

But twistier circuits like Monaco and Singapore exposed the weaknesses of RB19 to a greater extent. While Verstappen won in Monaco, Singapore finally tripped up the Milton Keynes juggernaut as they failed to get into the top three on race day.

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Red Bull have ‘hit most of’ their targets for RB20

With a tendency to understeer at low speeds, its potency was also reduced when less smooth road surfaces required more ground clearance – such as on street circuits.

“Because of this, we set clear targets quite far back during the RB19 development process for the RB20,” Waterhouse explained.

“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.”

While RB20 hasn’t even hit the track yet to begin pre-season testing, Red Bull are already eyeing up RB21 and the car they’ll race for the final year of the current regulations.

Due to the extent of their dominance and the stability of the regulations, concentrating resources well into the future is a pleasant side effect for Red Bull. It’s due to situations like this that the FIA recently wrote in rule changes to prevent any 2026-specific aerodynamic or CFD testing until the start of ’25.

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