Former Red Bull driver Mark Webber explains why Red Bull is so good in F1 as the Milton-Keynes-based team always contends for the title.
Red Bull introduced its dominance to the F1 world in 2010 and continued it until 2013. Though the team didn’t become a shadow of its former self, Mercedes became too good to beat.
Yet, Red Bull managed to keep its standards and always rivalled Mercedes and Ferrari. In 2021, Max Verstappen won the championship under the Red Bull badge.
And now, in 2022, they are the hotshot favourites for the championship. Thus, keeping a quality level in F1 is hardly done, and Mark Webber reveals what makes his former team so good in it.
“What’s Red Bull’s secret? It is very lean at the top,” Webber said. “Toto Wolff does a brilliant job filtering out the corporate influences at Mercedes, because all the corporate stuff can be a massive anchor. Red Bull doesn’t have that – and it has also been blessed with great stability.”
Moreover, he also thinks there is good cooperation between team owner Dietrich Mateschitz and team bosses Christian Horner and Helmut Marko. Thus, there is stability.
Red Bull has wings to take risks
Apart from that, Webber also believes that Red Bull never fears taking risks. He admits that his former team always has the finances that other dreams can only dream of, but the stomach to risk is far greater.
“It has benefited from fantastic consistency and has retained most of its key staff, but it’s that leanness at the top that counts Yes, the team has good finances, because the brand is strong, but it also has a can-do attitude,” added Webber.
Red Bull’s rear suspension is a classic #F1 layout. Providing separate spring and damping in both heave and roll.
It fully decouples heave and roll, as well as spring and damper.
Adjustment to springs involves pulling the torsion bar out and replacing. Likewise with the dampers. pic.twitter.com/ucYD2dZyua— Craig Scarborough (@ScarbsTech) April 7, 2022
Red Bull opening its own manufacturing unit is also an example of that. Upon learning Honda was leaving F1, they didn’t prefer to take the usual route and hire a rival to supply them with engines.
Instead, they fought to have an engine freeze so that they could make their own engines using Honda’s IP. The intention to have its engine operations was a risky call. Yet the Milton-Keynes-based outfit dared, and that probably makes Webber’s assessment correct.
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