Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has been left feeling smug after noticing the other F1 teams had copied the same concept of their dominant RB19 from last year during the first test of the season.
Max Verstappen enjoyed the most dominant season in F1 history last year with Red Bull winning all but one of the 22 races.
The RB19 will go down as a generational piece of engineering work that the other teams were unable to copy or get anywhere near to.
The trick for Red Bull heading into 2024 is working out how to keep progressing their concept with their rivals expected to close the gap.
Helmut Marko likes where Red Bull are compared to their rivals
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F1 testing is the first chance to catch a glimpse of the drivers and get an idea of where each team is at.
No driver put in more work than Max Verstappen in the opening day of testing as the reigning world champion was out on track for 142 laps and Marko was pleased with how things went.
The Red Bull garage also kept a close eye on their competitors and Marko was pleased by what he had seen.
"The competitors' cars all look like our car from last year," Marko told NU.
"I mainly think that they did not expect what we did."
George Russell came close to emulating Verstappen's work on track with 121 laps, but Marko felt the Mercedes car wasn't completely up to scratch.
He added: "Mercedes had some problems, but our car just worked from the first moment.
"The concept works. We are proud and happy. The reliability is incredible and we can develop further on this. It all looks good."
And it was a similar story, Marko felt, for more of Red Bull's rivals with the F1 season potentially picking up where it left off.
"Looking at tyre wear, it seems that Ferrari has more problems than us again," Marko said.
"The McLaren showed some nervous behaviour. I can't judge Mercedes properly.
Red Bull are the team to beat this year
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"I don't fully understand what they did on the first day, but I do think they were faster.
"But we can have confidence.
"The first feedback from Max was positive. All the changes we made to the setup today worked.
"The car responded well, it was mainly fine-tuning what we did."
Verstappen was also pleased with what he was experiencing in the cockpit and gave his approval to the RB20.
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Max Verstappen had a long day out on track on Wednesday
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He said: “It feels good to be back in an F1 car again and I had fun out on track today. We covered a lot of laps and tried quite a few things with the car, which was important, so happy overall with how it went.
“After the winter break, the first few laps always surprise you a little but then you get back into the swing of things pretty quickly.
"Overall, the car was responding well and considering this was only testing we had a nice day.
“Looking to tomorrow, we are speaking to our engineers about what the plans will be, but I am looking forward to getting into the car in the afternoon.”
