Red Bull’s substantial step for this season has caught rivals by surprise after most of them focussed on trying to work out what made last year’s RB19 so competitive, and inevitably ended up with cars that owe much to the title winner.
Red Bull itself has now gone in a different direction, adopting a 'zeropod' concept similar to what Mercedes ultimately abandoned partway through 2023.
Stella also acknowledged that the Milton Keynes team was “brave” in making such a big change to a package that was so dominant last year.
“I have to say when I saw the car, I was like, ‘Wow, they certainly were brave in changing some of the shapes that made that car so successful last year,’” he said.
“I think they could enjoy such an advantage last year that it gave them confidence from a timeline point of view to take some risks, because you can take these risks early on to actually see whether it works.
“What I would say, though, is that while there is innovation, that we can see macroscopically, like I've said already, in these regulations a lot is in millimetres. And a lot happens in work we don't see between the underneath of the car and the ground.
Both Stella and McLaren CEO Zak Brown have previously indicated that they feared that Red Bull would be able to make a big step in 2024 as the team didn’t have to focus R&D efforts on improving the RB19 over the course of last season.
Source: Autosport