© Getty ImagesHigh Fives For The BullsWhat a season it's been for The Bulls.
Afterninelongseasons,theConstructors’ChampionshiptrophyisbackinMiltonKeynesandit’salldowntotheremarkableRB18,phenomenalperformancesfromMaxandChecoandoneoftheTeam’smostimpressivelyputtogethercampaigns.Here’showitwasdone.
The story of a title win is inevitably written in big numbers – the wins, poles, podiums and points. But behind the statistics, a team’s progress to a world championship win is always more nuanced and is the distillation of the efforts of hundreds of dedicated professionals operating at the highest level.
On February 9, the Team revealed its first fully clean sheet car design since its F1 debut in 2005 with the online fan-hosted launch of the RB18. “We are aiming to build on what we achieved last year,” said Team Principal and CEO Christian Horner. “The big unknown is have we missed something with these regulations and has someone else stolen a march?”
The answer was an emphatic no. At the first test in Barcelona the RB18 started quietly, but by the end of the days was pushing early pacesetters Ferrari. And by the end of the second test in Bahrain Max ran almost seven tenths of a second quicker than likely title rival Charles Leclerc. It was clear that while there was a marathon ahead, the earliest heats had shown that the RB18 could put the team firmly in the fight.
And over the next 20 races it was the team’s ability to continually refine the performance of the RB18 that helped to secure the title.
First, came the eradication of teething troubles that caused the team to suffer its first double DNF since the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, at the opening round in Bahrain. Max was sidelined once more, in Australia, but thereafter the RB18 ran almost flawlessly to the championship flag, with the only other technical issue being DRS niggles and a hydraulics problem that ruled Checo out of the Canadian Grand Prix after just seven laps. Indeed, following Round 9 in Montreal the RB18 didn’t miss a beat on Sundays.
Checo Taking It To The Edge In Miami© Getty Images
Afterwards came the car developments that took the RB18 from a quick contender in the early races to a dominant title-winner. The main area of focus at the factory was reducing weight. A by-product of the all new 2022 technical regulations – which featured larger wheels and tyres, strong crash structures and numerous other tweaks, was that cars would by their very nature be heavy, up to a minimum of 798kg, 46kg more than in 2021.
Over the first half of the season the team successfully clawed back much of the excess with the result that not only was the RB18 naturally quicker, suddenly more balance and set-up options were available. Add in the tyre wear benefits provided by the weight reduction and a more direct front end, and by the second half of the season RB18 was not just competitive - it was setting the pace. So much so that after a spectacular Belgian Grand Prix win Max said the car was “on rails” and had been “amazing all weekend”.
Technical Director Pierre Wache agreed, saying, in Monza, that the RB18 has been made “efficient at each track, and when the track efficiency is going up our car comes to be working better compared to the others.”
Sparks In Spa© Getty Images
“I think the car, the way we adapted to the new regulations, the engineering team, it’s been a phenomenal performance by everybody involved,” said Christian of the car. “I think this is the strongest technical team we’ve ever had.”
Max’s incredible season and his journey to his second title in a row have been well documented (we've even done it ourselves here). His catalogue of wins and podiums have underpinned the team’s march to its fifth Constructors’ crown. But the contribution of the Dutchman’s team-mate cannot be underestimated. In the opening half of the season, Checo led the way, scoring 30 points across the first three races as Max was more affected by the early reliability issues and scored 25.
Checo’s best moments have come in big races, however. His Monaco victory was a study in defensive racing as the Mexican, on fading tyres, expertly held off a challenge from Ferrari to take his first victory in the Principality.
And while Checo reckons that was his “most special” race of 2022, his victory in Singapore was perhaps even more impressive. “Without a shadow of a doubt the best drive of his career," Christian said of the wet-dry win. "Tricky conditions, he'd nailed the start, settled himself into the race, he looked after his intermediate tyres, safety cars coming and going, re-starts, and he just was always in control, super-cool. World class.”
A Couple Of Rodeo Bulls Break Loose At COTA© Getty Images
And not only was Checo a multiple winner in 2022 he was again the perfect ally in Max’s race to the title. At the Japanese Grand Prix, the Mexican hassled and harried Charles Leclerc throughout the final stages of the race, eventually pressuring the Ferrari driver to go beyond the limit of his worn tyres. The Ferrari driver cut the final chicane and received a time penalty of five seconds that moved Checo to P2 and handed Max the points gap to Leclerc he needed to take the title.
Ahead of the critical Constructors’ title weekend in Austin, Checo had racked up 253 of the Team’s 619 points and had scored two wins and nine podium finishes for his best ever season in F1.
While the drivers are the tip of the spear in the Team’s battle for honours, their charge would stall pretty quickly without the efforts of the Race Crew in the garage and once again in 2022 the team were at the top of their game in making sure that races were precisely executed.
Ahead of Round 19 in Austin, the Team still held the top four fastest pit stops of 2022. At the top of the tree was Checo’s lap 14 switch from starting soft tyres to mediums at the Dutch Grand Prix that was achieved in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 2.09s, a full 0.11s faster than the next quickest non-Oracle Red Bull Racing pit stop.
In addition to that benchmark, the team pitted Checo in under 2.2 seconds twice in Monza and in 2.19s in Hungary to lead the way in the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award for the fifth season in a row.
The Pit Bulls Smashing Those Stops© Getty Images
The final piece of the championship puzzle lies in the Team’s ability to out-think its rivals in key races during the season.
Perhaps the best example of that tactical edge came at the Hungarian Grand Prix. With damp conditions ahead of the race the Team opted to start both drivers on soft tyres, despite Max starting from 10th on the grid and Checo starting from P11. The decision turned out to be a master stroke as both drivers were able to light up the red-banded tyres and make rapid progress. The team was then able to dictate tactics in the second half of the race and Max took the win seven seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton with chief rival Charles Leclerc sixth.
“Strategy played a big part in our victory,” said Christian after the race. “We were due to start on the hard tyre but switched things up as a result of the ambient conditions.”
Max agreed, adding: "We made all the right calls, there were some good undercuts and overall we did a great job as a Team.”
Max’s win in Zandvoort, too, was a strategically complex affair in which the Team made the hard but ultimately successful call of pitting Max from the lead with 12 laps to go. The move put him behind both Mercedes but the Dutchman, armed with pace and grip, was able to overhaul both and claim victory. “It was a big call, but it was the right one, we would prefer to be on the better tyre,” said Christian. “The Team is operating at an extremely high level and it’s all the support and effort that you don’t see back in Milton Keynes that makes a victory like this possible. All in all, it was a fantastic Team performance.”
On The Pit Wall, Y'all© Getty Images
Overall, the Team’s progress to its fifth Constructors’ title has been a clear case of the sum of the parts being greater than the whole. And the best summation of how those constituent parts locked together to form an unstoppable championship force perhaps came from Christian, speaking ahead of Max’s first chance to wrap up the Driver’s crown, at the Singapore Grand Prix.
“The team has done an incredible job, transferring late on to the 2022 design, to turn up with a competitive car, arguably not as competitive as Ferrari at the start of the season. And of course, initial issues in both Bahrain and Australia put us on the backfoot. But nobody lost their focus on the objective in hand. As a team, we've been effective, we've been operationally together. Strategically we've been sharp, and we've delivered.”
And how. The Constructors’ trophy is back in Milton Keynes for the first time in nine seasons, the Team has secured its first title double since 2013 and the future looks incredibly bright.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS© Getty Images
