Adrian Newey has encouraged Red Bull's rivals as he admits the team is 'struggling to find improvements' in performance in 2024 F1, admits performance improvement is 'flat' .
Red Bull has emerged as a dominant force in F1 since the introduction of F1's ground effects rules in 2022, winning all but seven of the 48 races held over the past three seasons.
Adrian Newey admits Red Bull are 'struggling' to find profit in RB20
The reigning constructors' champion raised eyebrows in February with the announcement of its 2024 RB20 car, which was a big change from its dominant predecessor.
Despite the change in concept, Red Bull picked up where they left off, securing their third one-two finish in four races at the recent Suzuka Japanese Grand Prix, where the team introduced its first upgrade package of the new season.
Red Bull sit comfortably at the top of both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships, but Newey admits it will be difficult for Red Bull to improve in the third year of the current regulations, giving the team's rivals a shot in the arm. gave hope.
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He told RacingNews365: “From a design perspective, I enjoy regulation changes as long as they give me a reasonable amount of freedom.
“To be honest, when I first saw these current regulations, I was pretty discouraged because they seemed so prescriptive.
“Fortunately, we were able to relax a little bit towards the end. But actually, when you get into the details, coupled with that relaxation, there was a certain amount of freedom within it, especially as we looked at the beginning of 2022. As you can see, there were a lot of different solutions.
“Those things are starting to converge now, but we're now at a place where we're like, 'Okay, we've made some cosmetic changes for this year's car, but the principles are the same,' so internally The difference is narrowing.”
“In our case, we are struggling to find profit.
“In terms of improvement rate of aero effect per month, [we] It's definitely flattening out. ”
Newey's comments come after he was recently spotted at Bologna Airport, sparking rumors that the F1 design legend is open to offers for Ferrari.
The current off-track uncertainty surrounding Red Bull is said to have put the team's rivals on high alert, with Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll giving Newey an advantage over the Saudi Grand Prix weekend last month. There were reports that he had made a contract offer.
German publication Auto Motor und Sport said Ferrari's approach was “clearly more serious this time” since the Scuderia last came close to signing Newey in 2014.
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