Still on course for an unprecedented clean sweep of wins in the 2023 Formula One season, Red Bull go into this weekend’s British Grand Prix already champions elect.
Such has been their dominance this season, Silverstone too will surely fall. While romantics rightly yearn for an upset, an unlikely blow to the flank of a charging beast, the brutal reality is the Bulls are rampant, the best team on the grid on every level this season.
Nine races in and with nine wins, some consider Red Bull have had it easy, their car and driver combination with world champion Max Verstappen in commanding form affording them a cruise to both drivers’ and constructors’ titles. Yet this is an uncharitable interpretation for a team that have earned their advantage and are focused on maintaining it with steely determination.
Key to their effort but largely unrecognised is a man who has spent more than 30 years in F1 and has been with Red Bull since 2006, an integral part of maximising their performance, especially over a race weekend. Paul Monaghan’s title might be rather clunky as “chief engineer, car engineering” but his mind is razor sharp and he is adamant the team have no intention of letting their lead slip away.
“There is no complacency,” he says. “If we were to back off now I would not say the 2023 championship is a done deal. It wouldn’t take the others long to catch us. But our personal motivation, pride and dedication would not let it happen. There won’t be a let up because we keep pushing ourselves.”
Monaghan might well epitomise why Red Bull have been so successful this season in taking their two titles from 2022 and turning them into an all-conquering behemoth.
The 55-year-old is calm professionalism personified albeit under the light-hearted nickname by which he is universally known in the paddock: “Pedals”. On a race weekend he is instrumental as chief engineer, a calm and phlegmatic troubleshooter dealing with the intensity and pressure of adapting to key moments as the weekend develops.
He oversees the race engineers who work closely with the drivers to ensure the cars are at their best on every track, a task Red Bull have achieved with overwhelming success this season.
Pedals is softly spoken and thoughtful, with an endearing, self-deprecating wit. One can see why he has proven to be such a successful people-person in the intensely cooperative atmosphere of an F1 team. He does not often speak to the media but, sitting in the Red Bull motorhome, is entirely comfortable when asked to assess why they are in such rare form.
“Without wanting to sound flippant, dismissive or arrogant, it’s not been easy for us,” he says. “Because getting the most out of this car each weekend requires a lot of effort from a lot of very clever people.
“If there is an assumption that this is an easy car to operate, it is anything but. The fact that the team have levels of trust and belief in all the individual departments, that those group efforts will merge together to make a bloody good car, is indicative of a very healthy team. We are not in-fighting, the gears are in mesh.”
Hugely respected in the paddock, Pedals is no spin doctor, no team principal playing the game. There is a sense that anything but a straightforward, honest consideration would sit uncomfortably with a man who has had a long career against which to measure Red Bull’s current performance.
He picked up the Pedals nickname in his first F1 job in the design office at McLaren in 1990, repeatedly having to draw the pedal configuration for Gerhard Berger, a tall driver who was tricky to accommodate in the car. He did so many drawings that the name stuck.
Seven years followed in the design office before becoming trackside data engineer for David Coulthard, then a move to Benetton in 2000 where, as the team became Renault, he took on the new role as race engineer to two drivers who would become world champions, first Jenson Button, then Fernando Alonso.
A short spell with the ill-fated Midland followed in 2005 at the end of which Red Bull headhunted him for their then nascent outfit. He has been with them since, through the titles of 2010-2013 and the years of Mercedes domination. He has seen every side of F1 and his judgment is sincere and invaluable.
Yet the elephant in the room remains. It is just the car, isn’t it? The team are coasting, are they not? He smiles and considers it again. “Listen to the radio messages from Monaco,” he says. “Max said on Friday morning: ‘I am coming in, I am going to shunt if I carry on like this.’ I don’t think it was even a raceable car at that point. So we changed it.
“It’s race engineer, driver and the research tools at the factory. A team effort. It was nice to see us face that situation and there was no in-fighting, there was a discussion, it went in the right direction and when put it in the sweet spot, each practice was better, qualifying was acceptable, and the race was wonderful.”
After an “acceptable” qualifying Verstappen took pole and then went on to win on a track that was least suited of all the races this season to the strengths of the Red Bull. An indication that their car was formidably potent but also that the team were able to adapt and react with skill and cohesion.
For Pedals it was a further spur. “There was a combination of relief and pride. You take pride in it but the best thing we do is learn from it,” he says. It is a repeated refrain from a man who has been in the game his entire life but still takes nothing for granted, including this weekend at Silverstone, a home race for the team from Milton Keynes and a track very much suited to the Red Bull.
“You never stop learning,” he says. “The car is evolving this weekend, every weekend. The great thing is they are prototypes, they are allowed to change and that’s what changes your competitive position. We are there to be shot at but we are here to try and protect our position, our competitive stance and we will do everything within our freedom to do so.”
What about that never-before achieved clean sweep? Can it be done? Pedals smiles. As an engineer he does not want to be drawn into imponderables he cannot control but nonetheless he acknowledges it is within their compass.
“Of course it is possible,” he says. “Each race is a new set of challenges, so be ready, be prepared, be thorough and let’s see where we finish. Sunday night in Abu Dhabi, you can ask me.”
