F1 chief warns Red Bull's rivals about copying Max Verstappen's RB19 car
Alpine's top car design chief has admitted Red Bull's rivals cannot hope to beat the Formula 1 champions by copying their all-conquering RB19 car.
It won all but one of the 22 races held last year and would have made it a clean sweep, had it not been for a rare off-weekend in Singapore. Max Verstappen enjoyed driving it very much, winning 19 of those races and smashing another load of F1 records on the way to his third title.
When one car is obviously superior to its competitors, it can often be tempting for teams to take 'inspiration' from the dominant machine. And there will undoubtedly be some elements of the Red Bull RB19 which teams up and down the grid will incorporate into their 2024 designs.
But Alpine technical director Matt Harman has admitted that simply copying what Red Bull have already done is not the way to go about beating them. He did, though, admit to having dedicated plenty of time to understanding what makes the RB19 tick.
He said: "We think we've understood it quite well. We think we understand what they're doing. You can't click your fingers and just imagine it overnight. We understand our direction. But I think we've also understood some of the other cars on the grid as well.
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"There are some other great cars there as well that have got some really interesting developments. And it's about trying to understand what you're doing, what they're doing. In the end, if we just follow those people, we will never be in front of them. I think it's a real mantra for us that we need to be inspired by these people, but we need to follow our own way."
Even if other teams do successfully unlock the potential of the RB19 in their own designs for the 2024 season, they will still be a year behind Red Bull. The defending champions were able to get to work on the RB20 much earlier than their rivals could switch focus, thanks to their dominance in the championship.
There will be examples, though, of the RB19's influence on newly-created cars for the upcoming campaign. It has already been reported in Italy that the new Ferrari car will feature a front wing with a design that is not dissimilar to the outgoing Red Bull machine.
Whatever teams have done for their 2024 cars, it is even more important that they are competitive. That's because these machines will essentially be the same ones used for the following season as well, as teams focus their resources on building cars for the 2026 regulation changes.
"If we turn up with a car that people see now, by the time we get to 2025, it's going to be very out of date," added Harman. "It's really important to be inspired by what you see. But we need to be aiming well past that, to give us that two-year horizon."
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