The RB19 - Fastest Race Car Ever?
Just How Fast is The Most Dominant Race Car in Formula 1 History?
Photo by Yesheng Liang on Unsplash
The 2023 Formula 1 season was without a doubt an unprecedented year. Red Bull showing incredible race-pace winning all but one of the 22 races held, a record breaking 95.5%-win rate. Much of Red Bull’s success is down to their number one driver and three-time world champion, Max Verstappen. However, there can be no denying that Red Bull’s car, the RB19, found no equal on track. Begging the question, did Red Bull build an astonishing car? Or did the rest of the field fail to build a good one?
F1 has seen its fair share of dominant constructor and driver parings, Ayrton Senna at McLaren, Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, and most recently Sir Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes AMG. These drivers are considered among the greatest to ever get behind the wheel, but bit by bit, race by race Max and Red Bull have demolished record after record in 2023. Their seemingly faultless road to victory is hard to believe considering seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton is still racing for one of the most successful teams of all time, Mercedes.
We don’t have to go back far to see just how strong Mercedes have been, in 2020 they won 76.5% of races taking victories in 13 out of 17 races, driving the infamous W11. This car is considered one of the fastest F1 cars ever made, acquiring 9 fastest lap awards in 2020, 3 of which still stand as track records. But where was the competition in 2020? Red Bull took the runners up position in the constructor’s championship with that year’s car, the RB16, taking two race wins and three fastest laps. Red Bull and Mercedes have been bitter rivals for many years and it’s no surprise to see them fighting it out for wins and championships, but with Mercedes failing to win a single race in 2023 you have to wonder if they got something seriously wrong when designing this year’s car.
So where is the evidence? Well, luckily Formula 1 is data mad, from tyre pressure to wind speed everything is monitored during a race. And obviously lap times a recorded in detail. It’s in these lap times that we can find the answers. By comparing the lap times of the RB19 and the W11 we can see which car was the fastest, but more than that we can see the performance of their rivals and the gap between them.
After sprawling through the best lap times of both the Red Bulls and Mercedes in 2020 and 2023, removing any races not held in both years and removing any races where the track layout was changed, we arrive at this graph:
Full list of lap times available at: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races.html https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races.html
This data shows us several interesting things. It demonstrates how close the lap times really are between four different cars. It also shows that there is no clear winner for fastest car. Each of the cars can boast a fastest lap and both the cars from 2020 (RB16 and W11) are tied for two fastest laps each. In addition, the graph shows the RB19 being on average 0.42 seconds faster than its rival the W14, interestingly the average difference between the cars of 2020 is 0.52 seconds, in favour of the W11.
On average the W11 of 2020 is faster than the RB19 of 2023. So, case closed, the RB19 isn’t the greatest race car ever made, right? Well, it’s not that simple. Each year Formula 1 regulations change to improve safety and reduce environmental impact. Every so often the regulations change dramatically. In the past reducing engine size and introducing hybrid power units has been the main change, but in 2022 the cars received a drastic cosmetic over hall. As well as bigger tyres and smaller wheelbase the regulations were primarily focused on changing the aerodynamic qualities of the car. Less emphasis on creating downforce from big front splitters and rear wings, the cars would aim to produce ground effect that would suck the cars to the road by channelling air cleverly under the cars floor. Why? Well downforce on top of a car creates dirty air behind it meaning the car following will have less grip and so can’t keep up. But with higher levels of ground effect dirty air is reduced and fans can enjoy closer more action-packed racing. Well, that was the idea anyway.
As the regulations for 2020 and 2023 are so different a direct comparison between the W11 and the RB19 is unfair. The W11 was designed to make as much downforce as possible to go as fast as possible through the corners. The RB19 was designed under regulations that aimed to create closer wheel to wheel racing. Different regulations with different objectives. But that brings us to our second question, did the rest of the 2023 constructers fail to build a good car? Back to the data.
Click here for interactive graph
All data taken from:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races.html
With a full list of Red Bulls victories in 2023 and the gap to the car in second place mapped out the picture of dominance is becoming clear. The RB19 was on average 10.7 seconds ahead by the end of the race. Some extreme figures do stand out. At the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix the RB19 was 33.7 seconds in the lead but by the end of the Australian Grand Prix the Rb19 was only 0.1 seconds ahead. So, what was the difference between these two races? Well aside from happening on different sides of the planet something happened at the end of the Australian GP that changed flow of the race. Kevin Magnussen clipped the wall destroying his rear wheel, causing a red flag and a race restart on lap 57 of 58. The restart would lead to further collisions and the race to end under a rolling start, therefore, bunching up the grid. As for Hungary, Max Verstappen had a relatively easy race, starting in second but taking an early lead in turn one Max drove off into the sunset showing the full potential of his car.
With Red Bull winning by such massive margins race after race many fans were understandably disappointed with the predictable nature of the season. Tommy Smith a 25-year-old F1 fan has been watching F1 since 2005. He even attended the Hungarian GP this year with the hopes of watching an exciting race. Talking about the new regulations Smith had this to say, “No matter what car you’re in (except Red Bull) you will be overtaken and there’s nothing you can do about it making races boring and predictable.”
Smith’s comments point to one conclusion, despite new regulations the gap between the best and the rest has only become bigger. Red Bull may have created a masterpiece of a race car, capable of putting in consistently fast laps while having top mechanical reliability, however the other teams have massively missed the mark when interpreting the regulations, to be averagely 10.7 seconds behind the race lead shows a server lack in performance. Here’s to hoping they can sort it out over the winter break and come back ready to bring the fight to Red Bull in 2024.