Red Bull Racing's chief technical director Adrian Newey has put his team's failure to recapture its dominant form from last year down to the winter rule changes designed to outlaw exhaust blown diffusers.
Red Bull was the first team to harness the concept two years ago and last year optimised it to a degree that allowed it to dominate the Drivers and the Constructors Championship. Despite working to recreate such an effect in a limited way, which led to a rules clarification that forced Red Bull's Renault engine partner to modify engine maps designed to extract the most downforce available from blowing exhaust gases at aero-profiled brake ducts, the Red Bull Racing team has only won three times so far in 2012.
Last year Red Bull was 103 points clear after eleven races, now the team is leading the Constructors Championship after eleven races by 53 points.
Speaking to Autosport, Newey said: "It's pretty much as we feared before the season started. Having explored exhaust blowing technology quite heavily for two seasons and then having that taken away together with other changes like the front wing flexibility test rules, hurt us quite a lot. Probably it hurt us more than other people because we had been exploiting it for longer. It has taken a while to try to understand what we need to do and to recover."
The chief technical director also hinted that Red Bull has yet to re-adapt its car to the engine mapping rule change introduced ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July.
While German World Champion Vettel finished fourth at the Hungaroring, he struggled to match the race pace of the Lotuses and the McLarens and the car was flattered by running on fresher rubber relative to the top three late in the race.
"We've been working with Renault and were suddenly faced with a clarification that was a different interpretation to what we thought we were operating to. That's where we are and we've got to go back and have a fresh look," Newey commented.
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2024 F1 Championship Standings (as of March 24)
P | Driver | Team | Points |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 51 |
2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 47 |
3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 46 |
4 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 40 |
5 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 28 |
6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 27 |
7 | George Russell | Mercedes | 18 |
8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 16 |
9 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 9 |
10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 8 |
11 | Oliver Bearman | Ferrari | 6 |
12 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | 6 |
13 | Nico Hülkenberg | Haas | 3 |
14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1 |
15 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 0 |
16 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | 0 |
17 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 0 |
18 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 0 |
19 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber | 0 |
20 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 0 |
21 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber | 0 |
P | Team | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 97 |
Poles: 3 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 2 | ||
2 | Scuderia Ferrari | 93 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 1 | ||
3 | McLaren F1 Team | 55 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
4 | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 26 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
5 | Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team | 25 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
6 | Visa Cash App RB F1 Team | 6 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
7 | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | 4 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
8 | Williams Racing | 0 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
9 | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 0 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
10 | Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber | 0 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 |
2024 MotoGP Championship Standings (as of March 24)
P | Rider | Team | Points |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jorge Martin | Pramac Racing | 60 |
2 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM | 42 |
3 | Enea Bastianini | Ducati Lenovo | 39 |
4 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati Lenovo | 37 |
5 | Pedro Acosta | GASGAS Tech3 | 28 |
6 | Marc Marquez | Gresini Racing | 27 |
7 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia Racing | 25 |
8 | Maverick Viñales | Aprilia Racing | 19 |
9 | Jack Miller | Red Bull KTM | 16 |
10 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Pertamina Enduro VR46 | 15 |
11 | Fabio Quartararo | Monster Energy Yamaha | 15 |
12 | Alex Marquez | Gresini Racing | 13 |
13 | Marco Bezzecchi | Pertamina Enduro VR46 | 12 |
14 | Miguel Oliveira | Trackhouse Racing | 8 |
15 | Joan Mir | Repsol Honda | 7 |
16 | Johann Zarco | LCR Honda Castrol | 5 |
17 | Augusto Fernandez | GASGAS Tech3 | 5 |
18 | Alex Rins | Monster Energy Yamaha | 3 |
19 | Takaaki Nakagami | LCR Honda Idemitsu | 2 |
20 | Franco Morbidelli | Pramac Racing | 0 |
21 | Luca Marini | Repsol Honda | 0 |
22 | Raul Fernandez | Trackhouse Racing | 0 |
P | Team | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Ducati Lenovo Team | 76 |
Poles: 1 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 1 | ||
2 | Prima Pramac Racing | 60 |
Poles: 1 Sprint wins: 1 GP wins: 1 | ||
3 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 58 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
4 | Aprilia Racing | 44 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 1 GP wins: 0 | ||
5 | Gresini Racing MotoGP | 40 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
6 | Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 | 33 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
7 | Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team | 27 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
8 | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 18 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
9 | Trackhouse Racing | 8 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
10 | Repsol Honda Team | 7 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 | ||
11 | LCR Honda Team | 7 |
Poles: 0 Sprint wins: 0 GP wins: 0 |