The real concept differences that will define F1’s 2024 Red Bull clones

Having utterly dominated the 2023 Formula 1 season, it would be understandable to expect Red Bull’s rivals to produce RB19 copies for the new campaign. While that could still prove to be true, there is a clear difference between a replica and a design which extracts superior performance.

Author Jonathan Noble

Published Jan 5, 2024, 3:00 PM

So it’s goodbye zeropods. Farewell inwash.

F1 2024 is almost certain to see every Formula 1 team on the grid follow the downwash sidepod concept that Red Bull has put to such good use in the latest ground effect era.

While even the world champion squad’s boss Christian Horner expects there to be “a lot more cars that perhaps look like an RB19 philosophy” this year, it would be a mistake to think that identical sidepod philosophies are going to produce cars that all behave and perform the same. In fact, when it comes to defining the critical aspects that dictate if a car is one that can be fighting for pole, or is left battling to get out of Q1, then the actual sidepod design would be quite a way down the list.

Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.