Red Bull Mastermind Reveals the One Advantage He Could Give Max Verstappen That Sebastian Vettel Never Received

Max Verstappen has often been compared with Sebastian Vettel for his successes at Red Bull. Like the Dutchman, Vettel won all his championships with the Milton Keynes team and won his first title at a very young age.

However, both drivers won their titles in different eras of the sport. The German won his titles when Red Bull rocked the double diffuser and was powered by V10 engines.

While Verstappen’s victory came when F1 adopted the hybrid engines and there was more influence of data. Even Adrian Newey claims it’s not possible to compare the two drivers due to the changes the sport has seen over the years.

Adrian Newey explains why Sebastian Vettel’s car fell short to Max Verstappen’s

Red Bull’s CTO, Adrian Newey, was the mastermind behind Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel’s successes. The Briton is one of the most accomplished designers in the sport. However, he believes it’s not possible for the victories of the two champions.

Newey remarked, “Inevitably they are very different things,” when asked about the similarities between Vettel’s RB7 and Verstappen’s RB19. He explained how the cars have evolved over the years on the Talking Bull podcast.

Newey claims that improvements in computing play a huge role in the current age of F1. He said, “The computer age has been a huge change in Formula 1. We can go into much more detail will all the simulation programs we have, vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, and design packages. That has been the game changer.”

Newey wishes he could have aided Vettel with the current generation’s technical advances. But with Red Bull dominating F1’s current hybrid era, he has no regrets.

Max Verstappen did not expect RB19 to be this good

This year’s RB19 has blown away its competition and has dominated the season so far. The car has achieved victories in all 5 opening races, giving Max Verstappen the best chance to secure a hat-trick of drivers championships.

The Dutchman was extremely impressed with the car’s performance so far. He stated on the Pardon My Take podcast, “I think the car is pretty good, we have won all the races so far. I think that’s a great start.”

Verstappen claimed 15 wins in 22 races in the 2022 season. The 2x champion himself did not believe their 2023 car could surpass their previous year’s results.

 

So the 2023 F1 championship is done and dusted? 🤯#F1 #RedBullRacing pic.twitter.com/t03kfIZWgM

— F1 StatsGuru (@f1statsguru) May 14, 2023

He added, “Honestly, we didn’t expect it to be that good. Of course, we had a very strong car to the end of 2022, but we thought other teams would have been a bit closer.”

Verstappen’s rival 7x Champion Lewis Hamilton claimed the RB19 is the fastest car he has ever seen. Mercedes’s team boss Toto Wolff believes the Milton Keynes team can easily win every single race this season. Although that seems to be a huge stretch, it seems Red Bull has a hand in both championships.