After back-to-back championship doubles for Red Bull and Max Verstappen, a number of its rivals have made radical revamp of their cars for 2024 in a bid to close the gap.
And while just making a Red Bull clone is no guarantee of success, as teams need to understand what makes the concept work, the indications are there that this is happening.
Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache thinks that some development routes that teams have taken – such as the Mercedes front wing – offer the best indication that the opposition now understands what made his squad’s previous cars so good.
“I don't know if they understood what we did, but I think they understood from what I saw in the development of their cars,” Wache told Motorsport.com.
“Even if it's not exactly the same path, because I'm sure we are not right everywhere, they have found their own path in the sense that you develop a tool, or certain paths of development, based on the issues you have and based on your understanding.
“So maybe they have found some other stuff that could be very interesting. To make it be able to work with three and half flaps on the element on the front wing [like Mercedes] is interesting by having more outwash.
“They have found a different path. I'm not sure they know exactly what we did, because if you just copy without understanding, for me it's useless, but all the competitive people in this business are following a path for their benefit."
The form shown by Red Bull’s new RB20 in Bahrain testing last week has left many convinced that the squad will be the team to beat for the season opener – and could have an even bigger advantage than last year.
But Wache is not so confident about things and believes that Ferrari’s long-run form in particular has left the Italian squad a potential challenger.
Asked about the view that Red Bull’s advantage had been maintained over the winter, Wache said: “No, I don't share that. I hope the gap will be bigger, but I don't know.
“I hope first we will deliver a car that will be able to perform well, and we'll see where everybody is.
“But to be honest when I see Ferrari [long run pace], they were very quick. So I don't know, to be honest.
“The main worry we have is this track is very specific. How will we translate to other types of tracks with different issues? Here it's very rear limited. The surface is very specific. I think we will have a different challenge, and I'm not sure it will be easy.”
