More Red Bull secrets uncovered with poker face move – F1 news round-up

Oliver Harden 30 Dec 2023 10:00 PM

Max Verstappen celebrates with donuts at the conclusion of the F1 2023 season.

Much like the 2023 season itself, Saturday’s selection of F1 news is mostly dominated by Red Bull.

Max Verstappen’s team stitched together one of the most dominant campaigns ever seen this year, with Ferrari discovering one of the secrets behind the RB19’s car’s devastating success.

With Adrian Newey’s poker face (yes, really) and a Christian Horner exclusive featured too, here’s today’s fast-paced roundup…

Ferrari discover Red Bull’s weight-saving RB19 secret

Ferrari aerodynamics chief Enrico Cardile has revealed Red Bull introduced a “new technology” in F1 2023 which potentially shaved weight off the RB19.

The 2023 Formula 1 season was a story of record-breaking dominance for the Red Bull team, who claimed a remarkable 21 grand prix wins out of a possible 22.

Ferrari earned the honour of being the team to deny them that undefeated season, Carlos Sainz taking the chequered flag in Singapore, with Cardile identifying one of the secrets of Red Bull’s success.

Adrian Newey reveals Red Bull’s poker face

Adrian Newey has revealed how Red Bull had to keep their poker faces on when F1’s floor changes for 2023 were introduced.

Having had an already incredibly impressive 2022 Formula 1 season in the first year of the new ground-effect regulations, Red Bull swept all before them in 2023.

This came as something of a surprise, given it was the second year of the now-maturing rules, but Newey has revealed how an unexpected floor rule change actually ended up playing into Red Bull’s hands.

Exclusive: Christian Horner speaks to PlanetF1.com

In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher, Christian Horner has predicted a few cars on the F1 2024 grid will bear resemblance to the dominant Red Bull RB19.

Horner hinted the RB20 will be “evolutionary” – contrary to reports elsewhere – with the Red Bull team principal expecting a closer field in 2024 due to convergence.

To that end, he expects more cars to bear a striking resemblance to the RB19 once they roll out on track for pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Lando Norris warned against Red Bull move

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert has urged Lando Norris to avoid the “risk” of leaving McLaren to partner Verstappen at Red Bull.

Norris equalled his best-ever F1 result of second on six occasions in 2023, but is yet to claim a maiden F1 win and has been frequently linked with a switch to Red Bull as Verstappen’s team-mate.

Former Sky pundit Herbert, however, has warned Norris against entering the (Dutch) lion’s den…

McLaren lead tributes to Gil de Ferran

McLaren have led tributes to Gil de Ferran after the sudden death of the team’s consultant at the age of 56.

De Ferran made a name for himself in a highly successful IndyCar career, with victory at the 2003 Indianapolis 500 his crowning glory.

More recently, De Ferran had been working as a consultant to McLaren having been brought in back in May 2023 as part of new team principal Andrea Stella’s restructuring.