In the past F1 season, Red Bull faced much tougher competition compared to when the current technical regulations were introduced. The exodus of key engineers who contributed to the success of the Milton Keynes team was significant. Adrian Newey, Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley, Strategy Head Will Courtenay, and Technical Director Rob Marshall all pursued new professional challenges. This allowed competitors to identify the aero-mechanical compromises necessary to make their ground-effect cars work and surpass the RB20.
Red Bull introduced many updates to their 2024 car, some tailored to specific circuit characteristics and others aimed at overall performance improvement. However, more than one update failed to deliver significant gains. The limitations of the RB20 design had remained hidden in previous iterations, thanks to competitors grappling with porpoising issues. The RB20 was an evolution of the RB18, which dominated the 2022 season with a 77% win rate, and the RB19, which crushed the competition in 2023, leaving only scraps for others.
Nevertheless, over the past three years, the aerodynamic philosophy remained consistent, adapting only to regulatory changes and FIA technical directives issued since 2022. The RB18’s main drawback was its excessive weight, which was eliminated with the RB19. The unresolved issue of the RB20 was its handling in low-speed corners, which Pierre Waché acknowledged his team worked to address in the next technical project. He explained these measures openly to clarify the steps taken.
“The basic philosophy remains the same [since 2022]. Even though the bodywork has changed, its primary purpose remains unchanged. The rear suspension concept is also similar, pushed further to the limit.” The French engineer explained that the design philosophy of F1 cars over the past three years has focused on maximizing potential when the car is not at the minimum ride height, allowing greater flexibility for balance. This approach ensures a consistently broad operating window.
Red Bull’s Technical Director admitted that the current regulatory framework pushes engineers to pursue minimal ground clearance, even at the cost of adopting excessively stiff setups. This approach can trigger well-known bouncing issues and drastically limits options for balancing the car due to the suspension system’s setup constraints. The Austrian team chose to accept the trade-off of a softer suspension setup, understanding a key factor.
A stiff setup would indeed produce a faster car but one that’s difficult to handle, particularly on curbs and bumpy tracks. This was evident for much of 2024. Conversely, competitors focused their efforts on making extreme stiffness work. According to Pierre Waché, the RB20’s configuration was an unavoidable path:
“It didn’t matter if we had 20 or 30 points less downforce; the engineers could control the car’s issues. We were slightly behind because our car was much less rigid than our rivals. However, we are now heading in the same direction as competitors because the performance is there when you can control rigidity so close to the ground.”
According to Pierre Waché, the main challenge for engineers is the delicate balance between what the suspension system requires and what the aerodynamicists want. Pierre admitted that the RB20 had some suspension issues, which have been mitigated in the RB21. Engineers have focused on improving aerodynamic performance at low speeds, crucial during braking and corner entry. For this reason, the front ride height will be a critical aspect.
“If you have aerodynamic elasticity on the front wing, you automatically have much less load at the end of the straight. This allows you to lower the car for low speeds. It gives you the ability to balance the car differently between high- and low-speed corners,” the French engineer explained. Regarding performance evolution and convergence, Waché has no doubts: if Red Bull were to show up in Bahrain with last year’s car, it would be the slowest on the grid. Perhaps an exaggerated statement, but it underscores the point.
These concerns are not trivial, and Waché is certainly not hiding them: “Sometimes the entire grid is separated by a second. With lap times of 75 or 80 seconds, that’s a delta of 1.5 percent. The aerodynamic delta between two cars of half a percentage point is the difference separating the midfield from the cars monopolizing the front rows. That’s the margin by which people judge a good car or a bad car,” the Frenchman concluded.
We can add a couple of observations.
Firstly, Red Bull often highlights its problems only to later showcase its ability to resolve them, a practice they have leaned on heavily in recent seasons. Secondly, based on the information we’ve gathered, the engineers are very satisfied with the new car and are convinced that the RB21 will be capable of fighting for both world titles in the next championship, having addressed the main design limitations of 2024. We will learn more about it as early as next week…
Leave a Reply