Red Bull and all the teams of Formula One have had a busy schedule in the recent weeks, with their respective car launching dates. All the teams have been working really hard on their new cars for the new season. It is time to see what the engineers of the respective teams have been doing on the vehicles all over the winter. It is fair to say that other than Red Bull, no other team had an easy outing last season.
Even Red Bull, like other teams, felt the importance of significant upgrades of their cars for the following seasons. But the team that quite prominently faced problems with their vehicles was the Silver Arrows, with their W13 car. The 2022 summer was a big failure for the mighty Mercedes. For the whole season, Mercedes managed to win one race in Brazil. The reason for this big failure was the porpoising issue with their W13 cars.
Due to the trouble with the W13 cars, the drivers got severely injured as well. They complained about back and neck pains as well as bruises. Hence, the Silver Arrows need major changes for the new season in their W14 cars. Only time will tell if the engineers managed to build a car to help Lewis Hamilton and George Russell win the new season. Mercedes will launch their brand-new W14 cars on February 15, 2023, at Silverstone. The other rival of the Silver Arrows and Red Bull, Ferrari, will launch their new car for the 2023 season on February 14, 2023.
On the other hand, the current defending champions, Red Bull, have launched their new RB19 cars on Feb 3, 2023. With their new car launch for the 2023 season, the Austrian-based team has also announced that their new engine partner from 2026 will be Ford and not Honda anymore. Why the launching venue for the new car of Red Bull was New York? This new deal with the American conglomerate is the reason why.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the RB19 car launch, the observant fans have pointed out at the car’s major similarities with the W13 cars of Mercedes. People in the media and in the fans circle have already started calling Red Bull “copycats”. As they claim the Milton Keynes company have copied the features of the Brackley-based team’s car from the last season.
Has The Red Bull Really Copied The W13 Design?
The Red Bull team have already finished a private test of the new cars before the pre-season testing begins. Furthermore, the team, especially Max Verstappen, is happy with the results. As he mentioned, “I just drove the RB 19 cars for the very first time, and it felt very smooth.” It was a private test. Hence, the Milton Keynes team did not share any footage of the new car in action. Albeit the footage shared after the car launch on Feb 3 was enough to raise questions. The differences between the RB19 and W13 cars are the flat sidepods and the air intake.
All these similarities and dissimilarities points at one thing. That is may be Toto Wolff’s team was on the right track last season after all. With few minor changes the W13 of the Silver Arrows have indeed inspired the Red Bull team to build the RB19 cars. If these changes work out for the Red Bull then perhaps the RB19 cars would do exactly what Mercedes hoped W13 to do. In the new season, the Red Bull team would hope to defend their constructor’s championship as well. If they successfully defend this title then it would be after 2011 since they managed to defend it.
