Red Bull star admits to COPYING other F1 teams

Red Bull Racing celebrating the teams' championship title in Japan — Photo: © LAT Images

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Red Bull star admits to COPYING other F1 teams

The team have been constructors' world champions in the last two seasons

By Sam Cook.

Tuesday 30 January 2024 17:57

Red Bull's technical director Pierre Wache has admitted that there's a certain amount of copying designs and concepts that goes on between Formula 1 teams.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit won the constructors' title last season with one of the most dominant cars of all time, with just a single race won by someone not driving the RB19.

Star man Max Verstappen has managed to claim three consecutive drivers' world championships, and heads in to the upcoming 2024 season attempting to add to his impressive career haul of 54 race victories.

Red Bull's RB19 claimed 21 of the 22 race wins throughout the 2023 season, the most wins claimed by a single team in any F1 season.

Pierre Wache has been with the Red Bull team since 2013

Max Verstappen claimed 19 race victories for Red Bull in 2023, including 10 in a row, an F1 record

Red Bull are to unveil their new car on February 15, just a week before testing

Red Bull's car design tips

Now, Wache has described the ways in which F1 teams attempt to gain an advantage on their competition, outlining what it takes to build such a fantastic race car.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has recently been concerned about Red Bull's connections with sister team VisaCashApp RB, but Wache believes there are more similarities between rival teams than may be first thought.

“I think it’s possible to copy, but in every business in the world, when it’s technical, the ‘how’ is one aspect,” he told Motorsport.com.

“The most important aspect is ‘why’.

“If you don’t know ‘why’, you can copy whatever you want, but it’s better to stay with what you understand.

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“It’s like a Darwin effect, this business. You see something from others, you add another idea to it and you develop and you grow your concept, your strengths and your capacity.

“But, every time, it has to be on the understanding aspect. If you just copy for copying’s sake, it doesn’t work.

“You [need to] have the knowledge and also what you want to achieve. If you don’t have the same golden aim of characteristics, it doesn’t bring anything."

Red Bull Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Formula 1 Nico Rosberg