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

纽维揭示了红牛早期涡轮混合动力斗争的“相当令人沮丧”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.

红牛设计总监阿德里安·纽维描述了2014年F1的涡轮混合动力时代开始并结束了他们最初的夺冠之旅时，车队发生的痛苦的“重置”。

红牛和塞巴斯蒂安·维特尔在2010年至2013年的自然吸气V8发动机时代，获得了每一个冠军，但2014年改用1.6升涡轮增压V6动力装置的举动动摇了排名。

当对手梅赛德斯开始了自己的成功之路时，红牛车队（正如车队当时所宣称的那样）却被一台不可靠且性能不佳的雷诺发动机所牵制，这使得车队只能偶尔赢得比赛胜利，无望夺冠。

随着双方关系的恶化，红牛从2019年开始转向本田动力，在稳步改善状态后，到2021，汽车和发动机都将再次达到争夺世界冠军的水平——新星车手马克斯·维斯塔潘在一场激战中击败了梅赛德斯车手刘易斯·汉密尔顿。

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，红牛（在日本制造商退出这项运动后，经营着一家重新贴牌的本田车队）从可能的22场比赛中取得了17场胜利，维斯塔潘和车队冠军再次夺冠。

考虑到红牛的旅程，以及他在梅赛德斯统治时期所学到的东西，纽维说：“（你需要）有一台像样的发动机。我们进入了混合动力时代，雷诺搞错了，所以这非常令人沮丧。

“你意识到，在可预见的未来，如果你做得出色，你可能会赢得奇数，但你永远不会赢得冠军。

“这是一次重置。我认为团队的一个优势是，我们放下了头，度过了那段时间，因此，当我们与本田合作，再次拥有一个好的动力装置时，我们能够做出回应。”

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.

车队领队克里斯蒂安·霍纳与纽维一起发表了自己的想法，他补充道：“最重要的是让车队团结一致，专注于我们能够控制的事情。在那段时间里，我们非常忠诚。

“本田有着同样的激情，我们冒了这个风险，然后我们才真正开始为冠军挑战奠定基础。”

继2022年的成功之后，红牛车队目前拥有五个车队冠军和六个车手冠军，以及92场比赛胜利、234个领奖台和81个杆位。

今年，维斯塔潘和塞尔吉奥·佩雷斯将继续保持不变的车手阵容，荷兰人将与红牛车队保持到2028年底，而墨西哥队最近签署了一份到2024年的新合同。