The car that returned the World Constructors’ Championship to Milton Keynes after an eight-year absence, the RB18 was Oracle Red Bull Racing’s competitor for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, and will be forever remembered as the car that dominated the first year of the new aerodynamics era. Swiftly becoming one of the most successful cars in the sport’s history, the RB18 won seventeen of the twenty-two races, fifteen with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen and two in the hands of Sergio Pérez.
The RB18 proved to be a masterful response to a set of radically new aerodynamic regulations for the 2022 season, which proved problematic for most other teams. It did not start the year as the fastest car, instead that honour fell to the Ferrari F1-75, and had to be developed over the course of the season to unleash its full potential. The RB18’s designers developed many unconventional but ultimately pioneering components, many of which that were later replicated by their rivals, the ultimate compliment to the engineers’ ingenuity.
Pre-season testing in Barcelona and Sakhir indicated the strength of the RB18 chassis, with Red Bull and Ferrari appearing to have the fastest cars at the outset. It was a disastrous start to the season for the team at the opener in Bahrain however, as both drivers retired towards the end of the race due to fuel lock issues. A week later in Saudi Arabia, Pérez claimed a maiden pole position, though he was only to finish fourth after an unfortunately timed safety car, but Verstappen seized the team’s first win of the season, capitalising on superior tyre warm up after a late virtual safety car period. Pérez followed this up with a second position at the Australian Grand Prix, inheriting the position from Verstappen after he retired with a fuel leak.
Red Bull proceeded to dominate the next seven rounds, Verstappen taking victories in Emilia-Romagna, Miami, Spain, Azerbaijan and Canada, with a third position in Monaco as well. Pérez emerged triumphant in Monaco after taking full advantage of strategic errors by Ferrari, only his third career win, and regularly finished second to his teammate, except for a fourth position in Miami and a retirement in Canada, forced by a gearbox issue. The team’s performance dipped at the British and Austrian races, though both drivers claimed a second position. Verstappen could only finish seventh at Silverstone after suffering damage to his car after driving over debris, whilst Pérez span into the gravel after contact with a Mercedes in Austria, ultimately retiring with floor damage. Heading into the halfway point of the season, Red Bull had established an intimidating lead in both championships, though Ferrari and Charles Leclerc were still a threat.
However, after the summer break, a galvanised Verstappen began to dominate proceedings, winning nine of the remaining eleven races of the season, sealing his second World Drivers’ Championship in Japan with four races still to go. An emotional victory in the subsequent US Grand Prix, a day after Red Bull co-founder and owner Dietrich Mateschitz passed away, saw the team clinch a milestone fifth World Constructors’ Championship title, and their first since 2013. At the next race in Mexico, Verstappen won again, breaking the record for most wins in a Formula 1 season previously joint held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. He would extend the record with a further win at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, as well as amassing the most points in a single season, 454, beating the record set by Lewis Hamilton in 2019.
Meanwhile, Pérez recorded his second win of the season in Singapore as well as podiums in Belgium, Japan, Mexico and Abu Dhabi. While the Mexican’s form wasn’t quite as strong as the first half of the season, fewer reliability issues saw him earn more points, though Perez finished third in the championship standings after being beaten by Leclerc at the final race of the season.
Overall, the Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 earned seventeen wins, eleven further podiums, eight pole positions and eight fastest laps, scoring 759 points and winning Oracle Red Bull Racing the World Drivers’ Championship and World Constructors’ Championship.
The fine 1:4 scale model of the Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 is based on the car raced by Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez in the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort on the 4th of September 2022. Bouncing back from a gearbox issue in practice, Verstappen earned pole position in front of his home crowd by just two-hundredths of a second over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, whilst Pérez started fifth after a spin on his final qualifying lap. Verstappen started strongly, maintaining his lead into the first corner despite a similarly strong charge from Leclerc. Steadily building the gap, Verstappen seemed assured of victory after taking advantage of a virtual safety car period to complete his second pit stop, keeping him ahead of the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Pérez, meanwhile, largely maintained his fifth position, losing out to Russell in the second phase as the Briton took advantage of fresher tyres, but already having gained a position in the pit phase after Ferrari ran into issues with Carlos Sainz’ pit stop. Pérez also avoided damage after running over a carelessly placed wheel gun, an incident that Ferrari were later fined for.
On lap 55, a full safety car was called following the engine failure of Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo. Both Red Bulls pitted, as did Russell and Leclerc, whilst Hamilton stayed out on medium tyres. Verstappen re-took the lead almost immediately at the restart, and cruised to a second successive victory in front of a jubilant sea of orange. Pérez lost out to Sainz on softer tyres and was unable to retake the position before the race’s end. However, the Spaniard was given a five-second penalty for an unsafe release during his last pit stop, giving Pérez back the fifth place he had maintained for the majority of the race. The race victory was Max Verstappen’s thirtieth career win, and Red Bull’s eighty-sixth win overall in Formula 1.