First Images: Red Bull F1 Team Reveals RB20 With Goal of Improving on Historic Greatness

• Red Bull reached a new zenith in 2023, scoring an all-time F1 record 21 victories in 22 races, with Max Verstappen taking 19 of those.

• On Thursday the team unveiled its 2024 car, the RB20.

• Driver Sergio Perez said the design of the RB20 “just shows the hunger that we have” and described Red Bull as “really brave” with its approach.

Reigning Formula 1 World Champions Red Bull Racing today presented the RB20—its car for the 2024 season—on its Technology Campus in Milton Keynes, U.K.

And, get this, the team hopes to do even better than it did in its historically unmatched 2023 season.

Red Bull reached a new zenith in 2023, scoring an all-time F1 record 21 victories in 22 races, with Max Verstappen taking 19 of those on his way to an emphatic third successive title. Verstappen ended the season on a seven-race winning streak, and he won 18 of the final 18 races of 2023.

For the first time in its history, Red Bull secured a 1-2 finish in the Drivers’ Championship, despite Sergio Perez’s struggles, as it claimed a second straight Constructors’ crown and sixth in its history.

“These kinds of things are very tough, I think, to top,” said Verstappen, on 2023’s achievements. “I think it's also not our goal. I think it's just about trying to deliver another very competitive car. And from my side, of course, I'll try to deliver the best I can. But that depends on a lot of things that have to come together, right? So I guess only time will tell how quick we are.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner outlined that “technically, we can improve,” pointing to its sole defeat of 2023 in Singapore, but cautioned that “logically there’s going to be convergence with stable regulations. We can see other cars have had an influence from RB19, we’re expecting other teams to converge.”

Horner was present at Thursday’s launch amid an ongoing investigation following a complaint by a female colleague of inappropriate behavior, understood to relate to controlling behavior. Exact details of the allegations have remained private and Horner last week undertook a lengthy interview with an external barrister in London, with the outcome yet to be determined, and no timeframe set for a resolution.

“Inevitably there has been a distraction but the team are very together,” said a low-key Horner. “Everybody is focused on the season ahead, so it’s been very much business as normal. The support has been fantastic.”

The issue of Horner’s future remains the elephant in the room, given his stewardship of Red Bull Racing throughout its history. He was still a central figure of Thursday’s launch, in which the company commemorated its 20th season in Formula 1.

An introductory video featured extensive high—and lows—of Red Bull’s first two decades, while the V10-powered RB1, from 2005, was fired up inside the cavernous warehouse in which the launch took place. It is easy to forget that Red Bull took over a failing midfield team in the mid-2000s, applied its own culture and ethos, and transformed the outlet into World Champions in just five years.

Attention was then placed upon Red Bull’s 20th Formula 1 car to emerge from its ever-expanding campus.

“I think the team have done a wonderful job on RB20, they haven’t sat on their laurels and you can see that they’ve pushed the boundaries with the car,” said Horner. “There’s some great innovation on the car as well which will no doubt get scrutinized over the coming weeks. Creativity has been strong in the team and you can see that in some of the solutions that they’ve come up with.

"It’s not a conservative evolution, there’s some great innovation on this car. Only the stopwatch will tell but in the virtual world we wouldn’t have committed it to design if we didn’t feel it was better.”

In spite of the dominance of its two predecessors, Red Bull has still adopted some extreme and innovative solutions with the RB20, most notably around the sidepods, and engine cover, though as ever launch-spec cars presented by teams are rarely the finalised product.

RB20 was given its track debut at a rain-hit Silverstone on Tuesday and Verstappen described the approach of the design as “controlled aggressiveness” as he starts his bid for a fourth title.

“I'm quite happy with the direction that they chose,” said Verstappen. “I saw the drawings I think in Abu Dhabi, the last race (of 2023), I was like, ‘wow, that's quite different in a way.’ And they've not been conservative, let's say like that.

"I think what I like about the team is that we had a great package, but they took the chance to really go all out, I would say, and try to make it better. Of course, time will tell if it's really, really good. But from what I see within the team everyone is just happy with what they have achieved in the winter. But then again, we don't know. We can't control what the other people did.”

Perez added the design of the RB20 “just shows the hunger that we have” and described Red Bull as “really brave” with its approach.

“We have such a dominant car last year that you wouldn’t expect us to change the concept that much, you know?”

Perez scored two wins and two runner-up positions from the opening five rounds in 2023 but his form collapsed thereafter, scoring only five podiums – none of them wins – but he held on to take second in the championship.

Perez believes his side of the garage have “understood a lot of things” about his 2023 setbacks.

“I think we had some issues as the car was developing and the way we were trying to improve those issues meant we were taking performance out of the car and not necessarily going faster,” said Perez. “I think being more comfortable is not necessarily faster, so it’s something that we understood.”

While Verstappen holds a contract through 2028, Perez will be one player in the upcoming silly season, with his deal expiring after 2024.

“I’m sure that most of the drivers are going to be willing to get things done a lot earlier in the year,” said Perez. “But it’s just the approach you have, from my side I am just focusing on having a good year and the rest always takes care of itself as long as you are performing on track. I’m not really bothered about it, it’s my 14th season in F1, so for me the mentality is hitting it well on track.”