Although it was Ferrari who led the first third of the 2022 F1 World Championship, Red Bull has always had a very fast car since the Bahrain Grand Prix. Reliability was the only thing that snatched second place from Max Verstappen in the opening race and a month later in Melbourne. The two DNFs were separated by a thrilling win over Charles Leclerc in Saudi Arabia after a thrilling battle. What the Red Bull RB18 initially lacked was a strong front end that suited Max Verstappen’s very specific style. Although there was too much understeer for Verstappen’s liking, the chassis characteristics suited Sergio Perez’s driving style so well that it was surprisingly close to Verstappen’s pace.
Like Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, Max Verstappen spins the front end exactly as he steers the front end of his car, with incredible grip and little to no understeer. Sure, it makes the rear of the car very nervous, but these three champions, for good reason, thought they could handle it with lots of cornering and throttle. For them, young Max, it was a quicker setup.
On the occasion of the French Grand Prix, Red Bull had tackled this problem, making an important modification to the front of the RB18 to make it more “toe”. It wasn’t until Paul Ricard that Verstappen essentially controlled the means.
Unsurprisingly, Sergio Perez’s season has been a struggle. Unable to cope with the car’s new characteristics and trying to drive against his instincts, he began to suffer from considerable front tire wear, and the man known as the “Tire Whisperer” for his excellent tire management was much better than Verstappen soon began to run out of rubber. Little by little you’re getting late…
Of course, it is important to grasp the initial concept of the car in line with the brand new technical regulations for 2020. Three different concepts have been shown clearly and have been the subject of great debate since the beginning of the year, but Red Bull has backed out from its rivals It wasn’t just the shape of the sides. The key to generating maximum downforce from the diffuser was to make the rear of the car much taller than the front.
The concept came from none other than Adrian Newey, who, in addition to fulfilling his role as Chief Technology Officer, designed the gearbox and determined the pick-up points for the RB18’s rear suspension.
Obviously they are positioned higher than any other car of 2022 and, being that concept, the team cannot easily redesign it this year. This is because the production time is too long. This is a feature that no one can imitate in 2022 and which has given Red Bull a decisive lead over its rivals.
Having dominated in recent years, Mercedes, despite a pole position in Hungary and a 1-2 in Brazil, it was clear that the W13 was not living up to the team’s expectations.
Mike Elliott and his team tried unsuccessfully to find a way out, and before the summer break they came to the conclusion that the problem was not the aerodynamic concept, but the structural rigidity of the car’s floor.
By adopting the “zero pod” concept, Mercedes wanted to explore the open areas at the sides of the car to redirect the airflow towards the top of the diffuser for maximum downforce. However, it backfired that only one support was allowed to keep such a large carbon fiber stable. As the speed increased, the edge of the floor inevitably began to bend, resulting in the dreaded porpoise phenomenon. On the other hand, it also changed the aerodynamics of the car, creating an uncorrectable leak/leakage situation both in the lower part of the floorpan (less power sent to the diffuser) and in the upper part.
The 2023 W14 will have larger sidepods. This is due to the need for a stronger structure to prevent the edge of the floor from bending so much, but the mechanical and cooling parts have been moved to make better use of the greater available space and the upper surface area. In addition to changing the aerodynamics of the , weight distribution and center of gravity are changed.
