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It's no secret that Red Bull's 2023 challenger, the RB19, is one of the fastest cars on the grid. During pre-season testing in Bahrain, they hardly encountered any reliability or performance issues, so Red Bull' team principal Christian Horner is quite happy with the car.
During the team principals' press conference, Horner explained that he's proud of how the team reduced the car's weight to make it quicker. He added that their 2022 car was 10 kg overweight during a few race weekends. Now, though, it's much lighter.
Horner also said that it was quite difficult for Red Bull to develop their 2023 challenger due to several smaller regulation changes implemented over the winter. He elaborated:
"I think that the weight loss that it’s had is impressive. At times last year, we were running up to 10kg overweight. So, I think the whole team have done a great job to get down to the limit. But Formula 1 is constant evolution. It’s constantly refining and developing all elements. Look, RB18 was a great car, but obviously regulation changes over the winter, the revision to the aero rules, they throw in some curveballs."
When asked about how the Red Bull drivers felt about the car, Horner replied that both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are happy with the balance and performance. He also spoke about how the track characteristics changed over the course of a few days, which forced teams to make smaller changes to their car's setup. Horner said:
"The feedback from the drivers, they both got out the car after their stint in testing happy with the balance that they had. So, you know, the circuit has changed a little bit in the last few days, since we were here last, in terms of characteristics of the handling that just need tuning into the conditions on the day. We’ve got more and different cars running around and stuff like that now, so that's what they're embedded in now, with their engineers working on fine tuning."
The first race of the 2023 season starts in Bahrain on Sunday (March 5).
Sergio Perez says he feels more comfortable with Red Bull RB19
Sergio Perez recently spoke about how he feels much more comfortable in Red Bull's RB19, as it's more stable than last year's car.
Speaking before the Bahrain GP, he gushed about the stability of the car and also added that Red Bull's upcoming development packages might not be as strong as others, as they had the least time to perform wind tunnel tests. The Mexican said:
"We definitely improved the stability. I think that has been a positive, where I feel more comfortable with the car. And then it's only Bahrain; it's a very unique track, the tarmac here, (etc), but we got a good base. We are very limited, with our time on the wind tunnel, so we must make sure as a team that whatever we bring, whatever direction we push the development, that is the right one."
Perez will hope to fare better this season after failing to finish in the top two in 2022.
