The secrets revealed in Red Bull's belated RB18 unveiling
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
Feb 23, 2022, 5:46 AM
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/th...iling/8425707/
Late is the hour at which Red Bull chooses to appear. Having escorted Max Verstappen to his first Formula 1 world title, the team's new RB18 had yet to break cover as the team elected to “launch” its new model with...a completely different car.
But perhaps Red Bull is never late, or early, and has unveiled its car precisely when it means to. Aiming to keep some of its details under wraps to ensure they couldn’t be assimilated into the other cars, Barcelona’s “shakedown event” proved to be the first proper look at its new championship challenger.
And, as expected, it’s taken a very bold approach to the new F1 regulations, even if the front wing looks relatively conventional by the current standards compared to those we’ve already seen. The wing features a centrally loaded layout which sweeps downwards towards the tips, with part of the flap adjuster mechanism placed either side of the nose in a bid to build a small vortex and send it around the front wheels.
The endplates are squared off in a manner similar to its ‘sister’ AlphaTauri team and, like many of the recent Red Bull F1 cars, the nose features a small snorkel at the tip, built into the wing element behind the front plane.
But the front suspension is altogether more interesting. Like McLaren, Red Bull has switched to a pullrod layout while the upper wishbone is also arranged curiously, with the rear leg mounted much further down on the chassis bulkhead in an apparent bid to control the oncoming airflow and turn it downwards. There’s been a lot of focus in this area amid the new rules, especially with the reduced aero componentry, and directing airflow to the front of the sidepods with the suspension components appears to be in vogue.
Speaking of those sidepods, Red Bull has really rolled up its sleeves in this area. They feature a very heavy undercut, helped by extending the bottom leading edge of the inlet forward. In this area, the opening of the floor’s Venturi tunnels features a bargeboard-like extension over the top. Sharp, exposed corners produce and energise vortices to help shunt airflow outwards, guiding any tyre wake away from the floor area.
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Dramatic undercut on the sidepods is designed to channel air more effectively
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Airflow will pass around that undercut and around the flat-sided sidepods to be drawn into the rear 'Coke bottle' region, while the air passing over the top follows a downwards ramp to also feed towards the back of the car. This has been done by positioning many of the cooling components closer to the centre of the car, necessitating a larger inlet above the driver's head. There’s also a few tidbits around the halo area, with the mounting points either side of the driver’s head rather extended in size to help provide the airflow with greater direction over the engine cover area.
The floor too features a range of interesting little details, with a small cut in its edge and a squared-off ‘Z-floor’ - similar to those seen in F1 last year – towards the rear. The exposed corners will also help produce airflow patterns to help seal the floor, protecting the underbody flow within the Venturi tunnels to ensure they retain their efficiency.
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At the rear, Red Bull has switched to a pushrod rear suspension format, opening up the floor space more for the Venturi tunnels to deliver the right amount of airflow expansion – creating the suction that can result in a high downforce yield. As such, the pushrod rockers are mounted on top of the gearbox/tailpipe area to accommodate the reworked suspension. Given that Red Bull popularised the shift to pullrod suspension at the rear, this is an interesting volte face from the team, and suggests that the team has been able to find plenty of gains in the pushrod switch.
As expected, it’s taken a very bold approach to the new F1 regulations, even if the front wing looks relatively conventional by the current standards compared to those we’ve already seen
The bodywork in this area bulges out to allow hot air to escape, as Red Bull has not opted to pepper its engine cover with any gill-like slots at this stage in time. This necessitates a larger exit, which has been positioned a little higher up in a bid to keep the beam wing open.
For the most part, the overall rear wing shape doesn’t show anything out of the ordinary at this stage, featuring a relatively flat mainplane. The central part of the upper flap features the V-shaped cutout to bleed off any wake from the DRS housing – which appears to conform to current style and sits within a singular wing mounting.
But although the sidepods are visually different to the other concepts seen in F1’s 2022 prologue, the rest of the car seems relatively conventional compared to the others. But it’s simply impossible to say if the car’s good simply from looking at it; especially as the most important part of the new regulations (the underbody) is naturally obscured from view. And if we do get a glimpse of a 2022 floor, something’s most likely gone very wrong.
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Underbody will be the most important element of new car design
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
As of the morning session in Barcelona’s shakedown it appears that the RB18 has good reliability out of the box, Verstappen logging 35 laps within the first hour and 30 minutes around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. That will be encouraging for Red Bull as it looks to build on its first title since 2013, especially as it also hopes to make another push for the constructors’ title after just missing out to Mercedes in 2021.
Like last year, the two teams couldn’t be any more different in philosophy; Mercedes opting for a tight rear-end package while Red Bull has sculpted its sidepods in a completely different fashion – just as the two were on the opposite sides of the rake spectrum across the past few seasons. And yet, there was nothing between the two teams last season.
As I write this, Mercedes and Red Bull sit separated by a tenth as George Russell and Verstappen have logged a similar number of laps around the Barcelona venue. Is that a harbinger of things to come once again in 2022 – or is Red Bull’s decision to keep its RB18 secrets until the very last minute a precursor to more secrets becoming apparent later on? At this stage, it’s impossible to say.
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Red Bull was reliable out of the box on Wednesday morning
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images