Andrea Stella admits McLaren boss’ surprise at F1 rival’s ‘brave’ 2024 car design

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Andrea Stella admits Red Bull surprised the McLaren team principal after unveiling a ‘brave’ new car design with the RB20 given their dominance of Formula 1 over 2023.

The team from Milton Keynes followed a fresh design concept with their car for the 2024 F1 season. Red Bull have introduced several clear upgrades to the car that saw Max Verstappen have the most dominant season in Formula 1’s history. It won 21 of last year’s 22 Grand Prix.

Only Ferrari star Carlos Sainz denied Red Bull a flawless campaign by winning the Singapore GP last year. The 29-year-old took full advantage of Red Bull’s rare struggle to find a suitable set-up for the streets of Marina Bay as Verstappen finished in fifth and Sergio Perez took P8.

Red Bull revolutionised their 2024 car despite dominating F1 in 2023

Verstappen took 19 of Red Bull’s 21 Grand Prix victories, plus four of the six Sprint events, in 2023. The 26-year-old’s efforts returned 21 podiums plus the most wins from pole (12) in F1 ever, the most hat-tricks (6), the most laps led (1,003) and the best win per cent on 86.36%.

Their total dominance of the 2023 season even allowed Red Bull to shift their focus to their 2024 car early. While the RB20 has drawn comparisons to Mercedes’ cars from the past two years. It has miniscule inlets and sidepods akin to the Silver Arrows’ failed zero-pod concept.

Stella admits the McLaren chief’s initial reaction to the RB20 was ‘wow’

McLaren chief Stella admits he did not expect Red Bull would favour such a radical redesign of their car for the 2024 season. So, his initial reaction to seeing the RB20 was simply to say, ‘Wow’. But the Italian engineer also expects Red Bull’s upgrades to go further under its skin.

“I have to say when I saw the car I was like, ‘Wow!’,” Stella has told RacingNews365. “They certainly were brave to change in some of the shapes that made that car so successful.

“I think they could enjoy such an advantage last year that it gave them the confidence from a timeline point of view to take some risks because they can take these risks early on to actually see whether it works.

“What I would say though is that while there is innovation that we can see microscopically, in these regulations a lot is in the millimetres and a lot happens in work we don’t see between the underneath of the car and the ground.

“So, while what we can actually see could be the most visible, it’s not necessarily the most impactful in terms of the step forward they made.”

Red Bull fired an early warning shot to the rest of the Formula 1 field on the first day of pre-season testing earlier this week, too. Verstappen lapped the home of the Bahrain GP in only 1:31.344 – 1.14 seconds faster than anyone. But Sainz had the best overall time at 1:29.921.