After the long summer break following the Hungarian Grand Prix, Formula 1 finally restarts the engines and is ready for the Belgian Grand Prix which will be the first of the last nine races in the second part of the 2022 Formula One season. There are important topics of discussion ahead of the Spa-Francorchamps weekend, starting with the introduction of Technical Directive 039 which imposes the anti-porpoising metric and, at the same time, aims to limit the flexibility of the floors. All these elements could generate some reorganization – we assume marginal – regarding the on track hierarchy seen in the first part of the current season.
The real technical stars of 2022 are, without a shadow of a doubt, Ferrari and Red Bull who will continue to compete for both world titles. It goes without saying that the team of Milton Keynes and Max Verstappen are the absolute favorites. The great distance in terms of points, however, does not stop the Austrian team in the development race.
Red Bull will not take a conservative approach in the final part of the season, despite the solid advantage in both standings, also because they are working in view of the next championship. In short, the Austrian side will not aim to manage the advantage without trying to further improve the RB18 cars. It would have been too risky because Ferrari’s potential remains very high and it could finally explode if some strategic difficulties that emerged during the season are finally fixed. Hence the intention to continue developing the project led by Adrian Newey.
The fact. The RB18 has been struggling with weight since the beginning of the year. The car exceeds the minimum mass limits identified by the regulation by about seven kilograms. The staff headed by Adrian Newey therefore worked tirelessly to make the car lighter.
Despite this, the RB18 remains overweight. And this is reflected in the handling that is not yet perfect, even if, over the months, Milton Keynes have managed to make the car less prone to understeer; a very indigestible characteristic to Max Verstappen who instead likes a more pointed front end with a lighter rear part.
The introduction of TD039 could have a side effect: an increase in the mass necessary to allow a strengthening of the floor. Hence the acceleration of the Red Bull technicians, who, according to an indiscretion published by German automobile magazine ‘Auto Motor und Sport’, seem to have made the decision to homologate a new, much lighter chassis. A costly operation not only for research and production reasons, but also for the need to create more parts in order to be sent to the FIA for the necessary crash tests.
Extra budget for Red Bull to finance the new chassis?
The chassis of a single-seater is the founding element to which all the components necessary to move the vehicle are attached. This is why, usually, its characteristics are not changed during the current season unless absolutely necessary. Especially when the budget cap situation is on a tight margin for everyone. But the derogation that came due to the increased inflation may have given the opportunity to invest in a project that could actually be an extra weapon in the world championship race.
We recall that the medium-low-end teams did not welcome the increase in the budget cap. Some teams, above all Alpine, have expressed a strong opposition against the modification that Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes in fact would have liked to be even much more substantial than the one which was actually achieved. As usual, a line of compromise was found.
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Clearly, the extra revenue was used, in the intentions of the FIA, to cover logistical and non-technical expenses. But it is clear that this frees up other operating areas of a team, like the technical one that could therefore have benefited from the indirect capital injection. The opposing teams, therefore, were right to fear, if the indiscretion from AMuS will indeed be confirmed, the fact that the top teams would have benefited from the extra budget to produce performance and not to cover the management costs of very large structures.
Only after the technical checks, thanks to the notes that the Federation produces informing about the updates that the individual teams bring to the race weekends, will we know if in fact Red Bull has modified the chassis of the RB18. If this were the case, a new controversial topic of discussion could appear in an F1 that never manages to settle down.
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