Newey reveals ‘pretty depressing’ reason for Red Bull’s early turbo-hybrid struggles

紐維揭示了紅牛早期渦輪混合動力斗爭的“相當令人沮喪”的原因

Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey has described the painful “reset” that took place at the team when F1’s turbo-hybrid era kicked in in 2014 and ended their initial championship-winning run.

Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel claimed every title on offer from 2010 to 2013, during a time of naturally aspirated V8 engines, but the move to 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 power units for 2014 shook up the pecking order.

While rivals Mercedes hit the ground running and began their own period of success, Red Bull – as the team claimed at the time – were held back by an unreliable and under-performing Renault engine, limiting the squad to occasional race wins and leaving them with no hope of a title push.

As the relationship turned sour, Red Bull switched to Honda power from 2019 and, after steadily improving their form, both the car and engine were at a level to compete for world titles again by 2021 – new star driver Max Verstappen edging out Mercedes man Lewis Hamilton in a fierce battle.

紅牛設計總監(jiān)阿德里安·紐維描述了2014年F1的渦輪混合動力時代開始并結(jié)束了他們最初的奪冠之旅時，車隊發(fā)生的痛苦的“重置”。

紅牛和塞巴斯蒂安·維特爾在2010年至2013年的自然吸氣V8發(fā)動機時代，獲得了每一個冠軍，但2014年改用1.6升渦輪增壓V6動力裝置的舉動動搖了排名。

當對手梅賽德斯開始了自己的成功之路時，紅牛車隊（正如車隊當時所宣稱的那樣）卻被一臺不可靠且性能不佳的雷諾發(fā)動機所牽制，這使得車隊只能偶爾贏得比賽勝利，無望奪冠。

隨著雙方關系的惡化，紅牛從2019年開始轉(zhuǎn)向本田動力，在穩(wěn)步改善狀態(tài)后，到2021，汽車和發(fā)動機都將再次達到爭奪世界冠軍的水平——新星車手馬克斯·維斯塔潘在一場激戰(zhàn)中擊敗了梅賽德斯車手劉易斯·漢密爾頓。

Then, in 2022, a truly dominant display saw Red Bull (running a rebadged Honda unit after the Japanese manufacturer stepped away from the sport) rack up 17 wins from a possible 22, with Verstappen and the team champions again.

Reflecting on Red Bull’s journey, and what he learned during that period of Mercedes dominance, Newey said: “[You need to] have a decent engine. We went into the hybrid era and Renault got it wrong, so that was pretty depressing.

“You realised that in your foreseeable future if you do a spectacular job, you might snatch the odd win, but you’re never going to win a championship.

“That was a reset. I think one of the strengths of the team is that we put our heads down and got through that period, so that when once we had a good power unit again with a partnership with Honda, we were able to respond.”

然后，在2022年，紅牛（在日本制造商退出這項運動后，經(jīng)營著一家重新貼牌的本田車隊）從可能的22場比賽中取得了17場勝利，維斯塔潘和車隊冠軍再次奪冠。

考慮到紅牛的旅程，以及他在梅賽德斯統(tǒng)治時期所學到的東西，紐維說：“（你需要）有一臺像樣的發(fā)動機。我們進入了混合動力時代，雷諾搞錯了，所以這非常令人沮喪。

“你意識到，在可預見的未來，如果你做得出色，你可能會贏得奇數(shù)，但你永遠不會贏得冠軍。

“這是一次重置。我認為團隊的一個優(yōu)勢是，我們放下了頭，度過了那段時間，因此，當我們與本田合作，再次擁有一個好的動力裝置時，我們能夠做出回應?！?/p>

Offering his thoughts alongside Newey, team boss Christian Horner added: “The most important thing was keeping the team together, focusing on the things we could control. We had great loyalty during that period.

“Honda shared the same passion, we took that risk, and we were then able to really start to get the foundations in place for a championship challenge.”

Following their 2022 successes, Red Bull now have five constructors’ titles and six drivers’ titles to their name, along with 92 race wins, 234 podiums and 81 pole positions.

Verstappen and Sergio Perez will continue in an unchanged driver line-up this year, with?the Dutchman tied to Red Bull until the end of 2028, and?the Mexican recently signing a new deal through 2024.

車隊領隊克里斯蒂安·霍納與紐維一起發(fā)表了自己的想法，他補充道：“最重要的是讓車隊團結(jié)一致，專注于我們能夠控制的事情。在那段時間里，我們非常忠誠。

“本田有著同樣的激情，我們冒了這個風險，然后我們才真正開始為冠軍挑戰(zhàn)奠定基礎?！?/p>

繼2022年的成功之后，紅牛車隊目前擁有五個車隊冠軍和六個車手冠軍，以及92場比賽勝利、234個領獎臺和81個桿位。

今年，維斯塔潘和塞爾吉奧·佩雷斯將繼續(xù)保持不變的車手陣容，荷蘭人將與紅牛車隊保持到2028年底，而墨西哥隊最近簽署了一份到2024年的新合同。