At the start of the season, Red Bull Racing lagged behind their Ferrari rivals, but gradually the Milton Keynes team made up for the gap and took the lead. But how did they manage it? Mark Hughes, an expert on the championship’s official website, tried to find an answer to this question.
If we compare the performance of cars Red Bull and Ferrari this season, apparently the turning point on the podium came in France. Prior to the race at the Paul Ricard circuit, Ferrari had a faster car, although the results did not always reflect this due to reliability issues. From the French stage, however, Red Bull dominates not only in terms of results, but also in sheer speed.
In France, both teams presented new bottoms for their cars. Red Bull’s goal was to move the center of the aerodynamic “down” to the rear wheels, which maintained the same balance while using a smaller rear wing. This technical solution resulted in an increase in speed on the straights, but at the same time prevented tire overload when cornering.
However, the main task of the Red Bull engineers was to make the behavior of the front of the car more predictable. This was achieved in large part by reducing weight, which shifted the car’s center of gravity closer to the rear axle. After reducing the weight, the team was able to tune the car in a wider range, as the limiter in the form of incorrect weight distribution was eliminated.
In addition to improved handling, weight reduction itself is a powerful tool for reducing lap times. Even without major adjustments to the settings, a 10kg drop in weight will usually get you three tenths of a second off a lap.
Prior to the French Grand Prix, the average Red Bull car was 0.176 seconds behind Ferrari on a dry track in qualifying. Given that the Scuderia car only slightly exceeded the minimum allowable weight at the start of the season, the small advantage in the first races can be partly or completely explained by this. After Red Bull also reduced the weight of the car, this was enough to change the balance of power on the track.
As for the redesigned Ferrari underbody that brought the team to the French Grand Prix, it provided more downforce but likely altered the balance, giving the car more understeer than before. The engineers, together with the drivers, tried to compensate for the understeer in the usual way – by changing the settings, which in turn led to tire problems.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
