“They were the team that was the benchmark”: Mercedes chief Toto Wolff praises ‘courageous’ Red Bull’s RB20 design

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff recently praised Red Bull's RB20, which had similar design elements to the German outfit's W13 and W14.

Red Bull's challenger was seen incorporating similar side pod design cues from the failed Mercedes W13 and W14.

Speaking to ORF, Wolff stated that Red Bull could have chosen a conservative path for 2024, given their dominance last year. He suspected that the Austrian outfit must have found more performance in the new concept.

"An extremely courageous step. Because if they had proceeded conservatively, they would have developed a really good car further. However, the data is leading in the development of the car and the data has probably shown that these developments of the new car produce significantly more downforce or better driving behavior. Otherwise Red Bull would not have done it," Wolff said.

Despite being fierce rivals, the Mercedes team boss commended Red Bull for innovating and admitted that they were the benchmark to beat.

"And they have always been innovative in recent years, they were the team that was the benchmark. And in that respect, I'm convinced that they knew what they were doing," he added.

Max Verstappen drove the RB20 to the top of the timing sheets on day one of the 2024 F1 pre-season testing.

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Mercedes driver reckons Red Bull are favorites to win the 2024 F1 championship

Mercedes driver George Russell recently opined that Red Bull were favorites to win yet another world championship in 2024. The Briton stated that the team had gone from strength to strength ever since the new F1 regulations came into effect, and have built on their momentum to stay leaders on the grid.

“They are in such a great momentum at the moment. They started these new regulations on the front foot and they came here and have been solid ever since. So, they are definitely the favorites, definitely a step ahead of everybody else here in Bahrain. They’ve had a massive winter no doubt, but that was to be expected,” said Russell (via The Race)

Red Bull had their most dominant F1 season in 2023, in which they won 21 out of 22 races and scored 860 points in total.