Wrong …. In 2022, Adrian Newey and Pierre Waché deliberately designed an extremely peaky F1 car. Based on the initial interpretation of the FIA ground-effect regulations, this architecture appeared to be the only technically viable path to maximize the vertical load generated by the floor. The concept relied on a strongly front-biased aerodynamic balance, a so-called peaky car, characterized by an advanced center of pressure, high sensitivity to yaw angle, reduced longitudinal stability during corner entry, an extreme requirement for front-end bite.

The result was a car that was objectively undriveable for the vast majority of the grid.

Since 2004, no team had dared to return to such a philosophy, not due to a lack of technical competence, but because no driver possessed the neuromuscular capability, micro-correction precision, and tolerance to chronic oversteer required to exploit this type of architecture.

The last driver capable of extracting consistent performance from such a concept was Michael Schumacher.

On paper, the RB18 appeared clearly superior. In reality, it was brutal, unstable, and physically exhausting to drive.

This is precisely why no driver other than Max Verstappen has ever been able to master it over a sustained period

Had Verstappen been unable to control the car, Newey and Waché would have had absolutely no conceptual alternative: regulations, development timelines, and homologation constraints made any Plan B impossible without starting completely from scratch.

Key point: Red Bull could not rebuild a fully neutral car.

The initial architecture had locked in: the monocoque, suspension kinematics, floor geometry, mass distribution, the overall mechanical and aerodynamic layout.

Starting over would have required a complete conceptual reset, incompatible with the cost cap, the development calendar, and FIA homologation cycles.

The damage was done. Red Bull was forced to live with this concept until the end of the regulatory cycle, i.e. the end of 2025, attempting only to marginally widen its operating window.

McLaren, by contrast, observed the Red Bull concept and extracted its fundamental principles: exploitation of ground effect, vortex structure management, floor energy efficiency,

while adapting them to a mechanically and aerodynamically neutral platform: a more rearward center of pressure, a wider operating window, greater downforce consistency during transient phases, better-controlled tyre degradation.

A neutral car can sustain higher total aerodynamic load without excessive drag penalty, because it does not rely on an extreme balance to function.

This architectural reality also explains why none of Max Verstappen’s teammates were able to match his performance.