Marko Confirms Red Bull Has Tried To Recreate And Improve Mercedes's Zero-Pod Design

Tuesday, 20 February 2024 at 16:15

Updated at Tuesday, 20 February 2024 at 18:43

In his most recent interview, Helmut Marko confirmed Red Bull Racing will indeed try and make Mercedes's abandoned unsuccessful zero-pod design work.

In 2022, Formula 1 entered new regulations. Each team had to build an entirely new concept of a car from the ground up. Before that season, Mercedes confidently stated they found something unique to make their car two seconds faster than the competition.

It was their infamous zero-pod design. As soon as the W13 (Mercedes's 2022 car) hit the track, the German team knew they were in trouble.

The concept didn't work as engineers from Silver Arrows predicted based on wind tunnels and simulations. Mercedes tried to make it work throughout the next two seasons, but it just couldn't.

In 2023, the team finally decided to abandon their concept and tried to focus on the direction that the Championship leader, Red Bull Racing, was pursuing.

Read also

Hamilton Will Make Ferrari 'More Attractive' For Adrian Newey Says Capelli

But here is the shocker. During a launch of RB20, Red Bull revealed a car with similar characteristics to what Mercedes had in 2022 and 2023, and apparently, the team from Milton Keynes will now try to make the zero-pod concept work.

The advisor of the Austrian team, Helmut Marko, told ServusTv, according to motorsport-total.com: "It's more than an evolution. It's a small revolution."

Similar to Mercedes in 2022, Marko said "everything worked very well" in the wind tunnel so far, but the real critical test will come on track in Bahrain when pre-season testing starts on the 21st of February.

"They were also convinced by the data of their sidepod-less concept. In practice, it didn't work at all. And we will now see in the tests whether we can successfully implement this solution, or let's say a similar solution."

As to why Red Bull would try to pursue this direction, the 80-year-old said it is because of "less air resistance." Apparently, the car that we saw Red Bull unveiled last week will be "the basis of what will be used in 2024."

What Red Bull has at the moment isn't precisely a zero-pod concept. But a successful test in Bahrain would open the door for the team to explore it further throughout the season.