Red Bull believes in it: Max Verstappen impressed in Friday’s free practice with an excellent long run in FP2 with the RB21, proving to be the only real challenger to McLaren, which since the rule change on wing flexion seems to have lost little to nothing.
The Dutchman is 25 points behind Oscar Piastri, current leader of the drivers’ championship, and the four-time world champion seems determined to maintain pressure on the Woking team’s drivers, clearly not giving up on his goal of chasing a fifth title.
The Milton Keynes team continues to develop the RB21 with a clear objective of widening the tyre operating window: every time the team led by Pierre Waché has succeeded in doing so, Max has won the race (Suzuka and Imola), and Barcelona’s characteristics appear to suit Max’s car, fuelling hopes—after an unusually positive Friday—of closing in on McLaren.
A new front wing made its debut at Montmeló: the aerodynamicists didn’t just strengthen the structure to easily pass the more rigorous anti-flex tests, but also redesigned the elements to avoid adding weight and, most importantly, to try to regain the performance theoretically lost due to the stricter regulations.
In fact, Red Bull not only built the individual components using a different layering than the previous solution, but also revised the shape of the main profile and the second element—this latter being the structural part connected to the nose. It is no coincidence that this part now features a significantly increased chord, while the last two flaps have been reduced. The main profile, designed for the short-nose configuration (also used in Spain by Yuki Tsunoda), adopts a differently shaped central spoon, slightly less pronounced, suggesting it may still be intended for programmed flexing.
Images show how the junction between the wing profiles and the endplate has changed: within the logic of the budget cap, nothing is thrown away, and it’s no surprise that the upper part of the endplate was “recycled” from previous designs in a reassembly that doesn’t result in entirely new wings but rather is the product of a precise cut-and-paste process.
The British team is completing a puzzle that has sequentially involved redesigning the floor, redirecting flow beneath the sidepods with a vertical flap that guides the airflow differently, and altering the hot air outlets from the front brakes. All these changes are “in tune” with the new front wing: the goal is to energize the Venturi channels and, above all, to make balancing easier during transitions from low to high speeds, which affect the car’s shift from understeer to oversteer.
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