F1 teams are being more secretive than ever before, especially since the new 2022 regulations came in. Teams are much less enthused to show off their cars any earlier than they need to – as we saw with some of the launches this season. Although we’ve seen some ACTUAL cars during shakedowns, not all teams have been willing to give up the goods.
This year, it started with Red Bull. The RB19 made its track debut at Silverstone, and its secretive approach to F1 has continued. Just like in 2022, the team held its launch event using a show car that likely bears very little resemblance to what we’ll actually see at testing.
As for the shakedown, the team released a short video clip on its social media channels – but it’s ridiculously blurry, and you can’t really tell much from it. Of course, no official imagery was released either.
RB19 👉 Spotted in the wild 👀 pic.twitter.com/B7BOKdR56Q
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) February 10, 2023
Today it was the turn of McLaren to show us their blurry video skills.
The team uploaded a short video clip of the MCL60 leaving the garage and heading out on track for the first time in Bahrain for their shakedown. Except, the eagle-eyed amongst us noticed some definite blurring covering the sidepods and floor. Interesting 🧐
Time to unleash the power. 💪
Our #MCL60 hits the track for the first time! pic.twitter.com/hFVWmWr6Ra
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 21, 2023
Whether it was intentional or not (although I can’t imagine any reason why there would be accidental blurring, a slip of the hand on photoshop maybe?), it’s most certainly puzzling. Considering pre-season testing is literally days away, and the angle of the video wouldn’t reveal much anyway, what are they so determined to hide?
The conspiracy theorist in me totally believes they did it intentionally just to make people like me write about them. If so, it worked.
How do you feel about F1 teams being more secretive with their cars?
