The Recoupment Machine: The Red Bull (RBioL)
What Red Bull had in mind when constructing the RBioL wasn't to build the fastest car, nor the most powerful, nor even the longest-lasting.
What they wanted was the most competitive machine
possible for a modern F1 team.
So, while Mercedes and Ferrari had been busy duking it out over who could produce the best engine—the fastest, most brutal, most dominant—Red Bull had quietly set their sights on something else entirely. And this was exactly why the RBioL looked slower compared to the JRX-97.
Not "incredibly" slower, no. But when you look at the numbers carefully—considering that even the AMG F1 W09 barely surpassed the JRX-97 by the slightest margins—you would expect the next best car to trail by a similar hair's breadth.
Instead, the RBioL lagged by a noticeably bigger gap, big enough that if you weren't paying attention, you'd think the AMG and 97 were running in an entirely different tier of racing altogether.
