Watanabe: Surprised Red Bull changed so much for the RB20

Red Bull utterly dominated the 2023 F1 season, winning all but one race - the Singapore GP won by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz - their RB19 the class of the field.

But 2024 showed that the reigning F1 Champions were not resting on their laurels, and as rivals scrambled to copy their car concept, they went on to develop it radically stunning the F1 paddock with their sidepod design that featured vertical inlets and an extreme undercut.

Not only Red Bull's rivals were taken by surprise, as their partners Honda were also left wondering when they were asked for changes to the power unit required by the RB20's design.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Honda Racing Corporation President, shed some light on the work done with Red Bull while developing the RB20.

He said: "For this year's Red Bull car, we were very surprised to see that they changed so much for the RB20. Last year we won 21 out of the 22 races together, but they still changed the concept. It is unbelievable!

"They made a lot of requests to adapt our engine to the new concept for the RB20. After we saw the RB20 in real life we were so surprised by all the changes that they made," he revealed.

While the changes included revising mounting points, not to mention changing the location of the radiators and what have you, Watanabe pointed out that Honda continued working on improving the reliability of their power unit, something - unlike adding performance - allowed under the current engine freeze.

He added: "Of course, we cannot increase the power [under the engine freeze], but we can adapt the engine to the new machine.

"Apart from that, we can also improve the reliability of the engine. That is what we have done over the past winter.
"This has given Red Bull more freedom for their design and for their aerodynamic concept. That is why they could change the position of the oil coolers, radiators, etcetera.

"Sometimes last year we had a risk to damage the power unit that did not become big trouble in the end, but we always need to minimise the risk.

"That is why we have made our best effort to improve the reliability of the engine even further for this year," Watanabe concluded.

Honda will join forces with Aston Martin in 2026 as their works partner, and Watanabe recently claimed they will be targeting a Title challenge on the dawn of the new regulations.