Established in 2006 as a team for impressive youngsters from Red Bull’s young driver programme, the team now known as RB – originally named Toro Rosso and then AlphaTauri – is looking to return to the midfield as a minimum in 2024. The 2023 season saw the Faenza based team finish P8, but the team’s technical director Jody Egginton has spoken confidently about their chances this year. Although not making a claim as to where they will finish, the main aim is to continue on the upward trajectory which they demonstrated midway last season which saw a much-needed recovery after they ‘threw points away early on’.
In January of this year and prior to AlphaTauri’s rebranding to RB, the team’s technical director Jody Egginton was reported by AutoSport as saying “We want to continue on this trajectory of progress we have followed during the second half year. The goal is to achieve something similar to what we did in 2020 and 2021.” Egginton also expressed the importance of having ‘a solid winter’ as then his team’s season ‘can be a little better’. Having finished the Bahrain pre-season test with 367 laps under their belt – 157 for Yuki Tsunoda and 210 for Daniel Ricciardo – it is fair to say that the team managed to have the solid winter they desired.
Egginton spoke in Bahrain last week about his team’s 2024 challenger – VCARB 01 – and the importance of maintaining the momentum which they demonstrated in the latter part of the 2023 F1 season. RB’s Technical Director told the media in attendance that the team had hit all of their milestones in terms of car builds, dyno testing and shakedown. He then reflected on how the car performed in Bahrain.
“Here the cars worked really well gathering a lot of data. So, so far so good.”
Obviously, it is very early days in a record breaking 24 race season and with that in mind, Egginton explained how no one is getting ahead of themselves despite the promising signs seen on track so far.
“It is very difficult to predict with any certainty where anyone else is…we’re sort of on track and taking it step by step. So, I feel a smoother start of the season than last year in terms of what we’re learning.”
Egginton explained before then expanding in greater detail when the change in form started last year. “I think from race 11, certainly race 16 last year. So, we’ve got a lot of momentum regarding development. We got back to our old selves and the intention is to carry on like that this year but get that momentum building this year earlier and carrying it on.
“So, that’s the target I feel so far that yeah, we’re better prepared than last year and a slightly better situation but at the same time, like every team, we’re not quite sure exactly where other people are. But it feels like we’re learning more earlier this year, and the intention is to continue with that development gradient – as we put in place in the second-half of last year,” Egginton confirmed.
Being a team closely linked with Red Bull Racing has obvious benefits, but it doesn’t mean that the VCARB 01 is simply able to be a copy of the history making RB19. McLaren’s Zak Brown has been vocal in hoping to see an end to such partnership between teams but Egginton reiterated how the team operates within the rules defined by FIA and auditors: “It’s quite clear which way what information can flow in each direction we have to adhere to that and we’re scrutinised on that.”
Egginton also highlighted that as much as some of the parts may be ‘Red Bull parts’ and they are running the RB19 suspension they have ultimate control on what they do aerodynamically with that suspension. Egginton also made sure to explain that there are negatives as well as positives that need to be considered when receiving parts from Red Bull Racing.
“There’s an administration overhead to make sure that what you’re doing is correct. We’re quite adept at that now we’ve been doing it since 2019 but on the same time there’s an awful lot of work to make sure you’re integrating those parts and assemblies correctly. You can make mistakes you can get it wrong,” admitted RB’S Technical Director.
The main question on everyone’s lips – certainly the fans of Red Bull Racing’s sister team – is whether RB will capture the high performance levels seen just a few years ago, most notably in 2020 at the Italian Grand Prix, when Pierre Gasly was victorious.
“We’ve got a better level of understanding but we also had to develop last year’s car later on into the season and this year’s car is a strong evolution of that. So, potentially a bit more performance on our car last year relative to the competitors.
“The key is to continue on that trajectory at the start of this year but I’m not able – I’m not willing – to sit here now and say where we rank and where we’re going to be and what we’re gonna do. But, overall, looking at everything I feel that we’re in a better place – we’ve still got lots of questions to answer but I feel we’ve answered more of them relative to this point last year,” stated Egginton.
Photo Credits: Red Bull Content Pool
Late corner entry instability was a major issue for RB to overcome last year – in its AlphaTauri guise – and it was put to Egginton as to whether having finally addressed throughout last year, does it mean the team now has a better direction in where to take this year’s car next to be able to extract even more performance.
“I mean to be brutally honest with you the thing that took us forward last year was getting on top of that entry stability. Once we started making inroads into that, the operating window with the car increases; the driver can carry more speed towards the apex; you can brake later; you can carry more lateral into the corner and then once we’d started to get on top of that it snowballs,” Egginton clarified to his audience.
However, as positive as this sounds, the problem is not one that is completely fixed and nor should it be according to Egginton as you can always find more potential from the car.
“Is it still there as a thing to work on?” Egginton continued. “Yes it is because you know there’s always room for improvement but that was the key last year. Once we unlock that performance then you could start going forward but if the driver’s not got confidence that he can push the car on entry it’s the first thing you’ve got to be dealing with really and we did. So, we consider that a through corner thing – low speed and medium speed particularly – and then on top of that in addition last year we were putting load onto the car and our objectives – I don’t want to go into exact details of what we’re trying to do this year – on the macro level are similar but that’s the key to moving forward.
“If the driver’s not confident on brake entry, then you know you’ve got to deal with that before you move forward because that dictates what he’s able to do at apex and then from that knock on exit so that was the key to unlocking.”
On this point, Egginton concluded by explaining that although a single update may not have looked exciting last year ‘it was a constant thing to work on’ and one which continued being developed throughout the year: “That started early on but from race 11 onwards we really got to grips with that. But as you’ve seen from the updates last year, there was nothing visually exciting but the devil’s in the detail.”
This update had a huge impact on the team’s performance last year and they start 2024 in a far more promising position. Should the team achieve similar success with their updates throughout the year, it would be great news for Formula One in a season which many hope to be less predictable than the last.
Photo Credits: Red Bull Content Pool
