Over the past two seasons, Red Bull Racing won 36 of 44 Formula 1 races with a pair of fairly straightforward-looking race cars. Mercedes, the former dominant force in the sport, only won once with a radically different car that briefly raced with a "zero sidepod" concept before the idea was abandoned in the middle of 2023. Those two facts make it all the more puzzling that Red Bull Racing's new RB20, its challenger for the 2024 season, seems to have a tricky new sidepod concept of its own.
The side components of the car are still shaped like traditional sidepods, but an obvious inlet for air to actually pass through either side of the driver's safety cell is notably absent. Photos with adjusted contrast show that air actually enters through small vertical openings hidden within the recesses of the design, a unique shape that could theoretically reduce drag. The idea is not far off what Mercedes was trying with its design, but the Mercedes team struggled through a season and a half of trying to build a stable car around the concept before giving the idea up entirely and choosing a more conventional design for 2024.
Whether or not the idea is a good one, Adrian Newey has earned the benefit of the doubt. Newey has long been accepted as the best designer in F1, and 38 Red Bull wins in the past two seasons suggest that he is not losing that touch any time soon. With Newey designing the car and Max Verstappen at the wheel, the RB20 should still be favored when F1's 2024 season gets underway in early March.
