Max Verstappen claimed Red Bull's fifth win of the season at the Miami GP, coming through from ninth on the grid; Red Bull have claimed four 1-2 finishes in opening five rounds; Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz helps explain why the RB19 is such a dominating car in 2023
Tuesday 9 May 2023 19:33, UK
Red Bull's domination of F1 2023 continued at the Miami GP as Max Verstappen claimed victory after starting ninth and secured the team's fourth 1-2 finish in five rounds.
No other team has yet stood on the top step of the podium this season, with Verstappen's win in Miami his third of the year, while team-mate Sergio Perez has claimed two GP victories plus the Sprint win in Baku.
The margins of victory between the RB19 and its nearest competitor have been huge: 38 seconds in Bahrain, 20 seconds in Saudi Arabia, 21 seconds in the Azerbaijan GP (plus four seconds in 12 laps of racing in the Sprint) and 26 seconds in Miami. And while the Australian GP ended behind the Safety Car, Verstappen had at one point opened up a near 12-second lead over Lewis Hamilton out front.
On average, the RB19 has been nearly half a second quicker per lap on race day. It has delivered Red Bull their best-ever start to a season and it is proving to be even more dominant than last year's RB18 which won 17 of the 22 races.
But why?
"There's not one thing, it's a culmination of everything working together in harmony and unison," Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1.
"Of course the RB18 was a great car for us, we've taken the learnings out of that and applied them into 19 and I think it's just all those elements coming together."
With the help of Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz, let's take a closer look at the elements that have made the RB19 so unbeatable…
"A car is nothing without an engine and the Honda power unit is probably the best on the grid," says Kravitz.
Long gone are the years the Honda power unit was the laughing stock of the F1 grid. The Honda-backed Red Bull Powertrains engine is now powerful, efficient and, importantly, reliable.
That power has been seen in the speed-trap recordings - in Saudi Arabia, Australia and Miami the Red Bull occupied the top two speeds in qualifying and in Bahrain and Azerbaijan the RB19 clocked the second-fastest speed.
Those top speeds have been aided by Red Bull's chassis changes for 2023.
"Unlike last year's RB18, the RB19 is a lightweight chassis. The lighter your car is, the faster you will go," explains Kravitz.
"And the RB19 was born slippery. Unlike the Aston Martin or the Mercedes for example, the Red Bull's aerodynamic design has very low underlying drag."
One of the few weaknesses of the RB18 was how far over the minimum weight limit it was in the first half of the 2022 season - at times as much as 10kg Horner revealed at the season opener.
For 2023, the RB19 is operating at close to the 798kg limit.
Kravitz also points out that the Red Bull car is "well engineered" at the track. It is very rare either Verstappen or Perez's engineers mess up their set-ups, enabling them to immediately have a solid platform on Fridays to grow into the rest of the weekend a step ahead of their rivals.
The downforce created by the RB19's floor is 20 times more important and powerful than what is generated by the surfaces on the top of the car.
"Red Bull are able to run their floor flat and low to the track which gives the car immense useable downforce across the speed range," says Kravitz.
"This also means that the car can keep its tyres in great shape."
But it is Red Bull's powerful Drag Reduction System that has perhaps been most evident in their 2023 domination so far.
The RB19's DRS offers an advantage of around two tenths of a second per lap over others using their own DRS.
Verstappen used Red Bull's DRS advantage to great effect in Miami as he sliced his way through the field - he had a 30kph (19mph) speed advantage when passing Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso for fourth and second respectively.
However it is the RB19's suspension geometry that Kravitz says is perhaps the "most cunning" of the elements making a difference.
"If you look at the top two wishbones at the front, the leading one is mounted very high and the trailing one very low," he explains.
"So when the car naturally tries to dive under braking because the weight is thrown forwards, the suspension resists it and keeps the car more level than would be the case with a conventional suspension geometry.
"Same at the back, where the suspension resists the car squatting down on acceleration.
"So without having to allow for all that dive and squat, the car can be run lower for a big increase in downforce."
And how does that help the RB19?
"The more downforce you can generate from the underbody in this way, the less rear wing you need and so your straight-line speed is greater.
"So you're faster through the corners, faster on the straight and you have a more consistent balance through the corner."
Red Bull have started four of the opening five Grands Prix from pole position, but the RB19's advantage in qualifying has been much smaller than in race trim.
And in Baku, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc beat Verstappen and Perez in both qualifying for the Grand Prix and the Sprint Shootout.
"We have a decent advantage, especially in the race," Verstappen said after the Miami GP. "Over one lap at some tracks definitely some cars will be close or in front, like you could see in Baku."
Kravitz explains that the RB19's suspension that works so well come race day can leave it not in the optimum working condition over one lap.
"That resistance to front dive makes it harder for Verstappen and Perez holding the steering wheel to feel the load across the front axel during braking. That leads to locked front brakes," he said.
"It also means that because there is not so much energy going through the front wheels, these front tyres take longer to get up to working temperature.
"The very thing that makes the Red Bull so quick in the race makes it struggle in qualifying. And as Max Verstappen says, the fact the car comes alive after four laps into the Grand Prix kind of reminds him of a family estate car.
"The pattern is clear. The RB19 is a superb car, when it eventually gets going."
On Sunday in Miami Horner was left pondering "where are the others?" after Red Bull's two drivers were left once again to battle it out between each other for the victory.
Formula 1 now returns to Europe for a triple-header at Imola, Monaco and Barcelona with Mercedes bringing their first big upgrade of the season to Italy after changing design direction to try and close the gap to Red Bull.
Horner admitted his surprise that Red Bull have not yet been challenged in 2023 but is intrigued to see what the European phase of the season does to the standings.
"You can never write anybody off. It's been the best start that we've had but we feel that we've made a good step from RB18 into 19 but the kind of step that you would expect," Horner told the media.
"It feels like others have lost ground and I'm sure they're working hard to address that. I'm sure big gains could come quite quickly.
"It's surprised us that the others have perhaps under-delivered compared to where they were last year. No doubt they will be looking to address that and I'm sure starting in Imola we will see big updates starting to come through.
"We've got a great car, a great team, two great drivers but there's still a long way to go so let's reserve judgement until after we see what they turn up with in Imola and Barcelona."
Formula 1 returns to Imola for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix from May 19-21. Watch every session live on Sky Sports F1 including the race from 2pm on Sunday May 21.
