Bernie Collins says she is “highly suspicious” about whether the car Red Bull revealed at their launch will be the same when it rolls out for F1 pre-season testing.
Red Bull raised eyebrows at the unveiling of their 2024 F1 challenger last week when the RB20 emerged with several concepts that were reminiscent of last year’s Mercedes.
These features included a bulging cooling arrangement running across the length of the engine cover and vertical sidepod inlets similar to the ones on the W14.
But Sky F1 pundit and former Aston Martin strategy engineer Collins has raised doubts about the launch-spec RB20 design, suggesting it could be a ‘dummy car’ to throw rivals off.
“I think maybe years in F1 have made me suspicious, so let’s see the car that rolls out on Day One in Bahrain because I’m not sure it’s going to be that car,” Collins told the Sky F1 podcast. “This could just be a little joke.”
Asked if it could effectively be a ‘dummy car’, Collins replied: “Yeah, I am highly suspicious but let’s see.”
Collins added: “If they do rock up with that car, then it’s a brave, brave move because they could have easily continued to develop the car they had. That would have been, I think, the safer bet.
“The worry is, and we obviously know Adrian Newey and the Red Bull team are very, very good, strong aerodynamic designers, they have proven that year after year, but Mercedes obviously felt it could work when they put that on the first car.
