Red Bull keeping its options open when it comes to the car concept of the 2024 F1 challenger

Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan has revealed that the team is keeping its options open when it comes to the car concept for next season. The team went with a car concept that was a departure from what its primary rivals Ferrari and Mercedes opted for.

While Ferrari did appear to hold the edge at a few races early in 2022, Red Bull has been on balance the fastest car in the turbo hybrid era. So much so that the rivals have started copying the car concept. Aston Martin introduced a car early in the season that had some resemblance to Adrian Newey's concept.

McLaren has done the same this season as its first major upgrade leaned heavily on the car getting closer and closer to the Red Bull concept. The team's chief engineer Paul Monaghan felt that while going for an evolution is not a bad thing, the team was keeping its options open for the car next season. As quoted by Motorsport.com, he said:

"It would be wrong of us to just leave it alone because our opposition is getting a bit closer. But the rules are quite tight compared to what we've had in previous years and with previous generations of cars, where we could do a little bit more and move things around."

He added:

"It perhaps wouldn't surprise you if I said it [the 2024 car] will be an evolution of the current car, as it will be a bit foolish to throw this concept away. But equally, we've got to make some progress. We've got to find some lap time. The opposition is on us and if they do [take] a step, then we'd better have a bigger step."

Monaghan talks about testing restrictions for Red Bull

Paul Monaghan touched on the testing restrictions that Red Bull faced this season and how it tackled it. The team not only had a reduced development time as it was at the top of the championship, but it also had a cost cap breach penalty from last season. Talking about the challenge, Paul said that it forced the team to focus more on efficiency. He said:

"It forced us to look again at the efficiency with which we do tests in the wind tunnel environment and in CFD. And whilst everybody has a restriction, everybody wants the efficiency, so that caused us to make some small improvements."

He added:

"I don't think they will be revolutionary, but any of those refinements we will keep as our benefit because, as we get a few more morsels of testing, then we use those morsels more efficiently."

Even though the 10% penalty period has ended, Red Bull will still continue to have the handicap of lesser development time than its rivals as it has won the title this season.