Inside RB’s growth from second-string junior team to Red Bull’s ‘brother’

When the Toro Rosso team renamed itself to AlphaTauri, it pledged to become a “sister team” to Formula 1’s championship-winning Red Bull team – and this path has progressed with its RB rebrand.

RB has always used transferrable components developed by the lead Red Bull team, but took on the rear suspension package part-way through 2023 in an effort to transform a dismal start to the season. This, along with a series of other upgrades to the floor, put its AT04 chassis in a much more competitive frame to lift it off the bottom of the constructors’ championship.

Although there were unfounded suggestions that RB would produce a Red Bull RB19 clone for 2024, it has chosen to pursue its own development path. In assessing the differences between this year’s RB20 and VCARB 01 in GPS traces, this becomes apparent; the Red Bull continues to possess greater strengths in higher-speed conditions, but the RB is strong in low-speed corners and under traction. But there’s a cross-over point, where the Red Bull’s greater aerodynamic efficiency ensures it can build more speed.

In that, there are two cars with common parts with very different sensibilities; the RB20 seems to lack – comparatively, given the car is still a race-winner – grip in areas where compliance is required. That’s likely down to its stiffer suspension preference, employed to keep the floor at a steady position.

Behind the scenes, RB is making more use of Red Bull’s technology campus, and will have its own facilities based in Milton Keynes just outside of Red Bull’s infrastructure to ensure it has a bigger working space in the UK – while retaining the Faenza factory that dates back to the team’s days as Minardi.

Per technical director Jody Egginton, this is thanks to the Bicester facility that the team had used as an auxiliary base becoming far too small for the team with its current philosophy.

“We’ve got well over 100 people in Bicester at the moment,” Egginton outlays in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com. “And it’s full. That facility is totally full. We’ve outgrown it. So, we need to move and that’s the main driver to relocating in the UK. 

“On top of that, the wind tunnel that is in our Bicester facility, we haven’t used for three years now because we’re using the 60% facility.

“Now the team is, on the technical side to some extent, is in a growth phase, so we need more space and we also are…