Fourteen kilometers per hour of top speed more at the speed trap is really a lot even on a very fast track like the Jeddah Corniche Circuit: Max Verstappen was flying with the Red Bull RB18 hitting 334.6 km / h with tow, while Charles Leclerc did not go beyond 320.6 km / h in the Ferrari F1-75. If the Dutchman was firmly at the top of the list, the Monegasque was only 16th.
The difference was macroscopic, yet speed had an impact on the final result, but in a very limited way: Max Verstappen won the second round of the 2022 Formula 1 world championship with a gap of 549 thousandths over the Ferrari driver who, however, took home the extra point for the fastest lap of the race (1’31 “634), resulting 138 thousandths faster than his rival.
The track, therefore, indicated a substantial balance between the performance of two single-seaters, which are designed with diametrically concepts: sloping sidepods for Red Bull and double floor for Ferrari, on a track that tended to be favorable to the RB18.
The first consideration is that there is not a big difference in power units: in 2019 Ferrari ended up in the dock for the alleged irregularities in the engine fuel system that led the Maranello team to sign a secret agreement with the FIA to end the affair without direct penalties, but paying a lot in terms of engine power for the following two seasons.
Despite the different speeds on the straight, there were no protests about the RBPTH001 engine, a sign that the causes are not in the Japanese power unit renamed by Milton Keynes…
“Honestly, I think they are different situations – explains Mattia Binotto -, because I believe that Red Bull has chosen different wings from ours and, therefore, the issue is aerodynamic in nature. Then it is true, the Red Bull cars have a very high speed and I do not hide that we are looking if they have any aero-elasticity in their wings, but nothing that comes from the engine”.
It is worth noting that Lewis Hamilton on the straight reached 332.4 km / h with the Mercedes W13, followed by Alexander Albon with the Williams just 0.2 km behind, a sign that the unit of Brackley has certainly not become the last of the paddock and that the problems of the silver arrow are aerodynamic in nature. The rear wing of the W13 was lowered to improve top speed, but the problems with the Brackley team’s car remained unsolved, a sign that the lack of competitiveness is not with the engine.
Red Bull, following the Bahrain trend, has chosen a very light aerodynamic set-up: in free practice Max Verstappen started with a rear wing similar to that of Sakhir, while Sergio Perez used a decidedly less resistant version as much in the main profile than in the mobile flap. The solution approved by the Mexican was then adopted for qualifying and the race on both cars.
Ferrari, on the other hand, made a quick experiment with a lighter rear wing, but then immediately returned to the well-known Bahrain one to find the best balance, especially in tire management, perhaps focusing on a too conservative solution, at least judged to rear.
The Maranello team did an excellent job in understanding the Pirelli lowered tires and seems to have better management of the compounds in race pace than the Red Bull car which, on the other hand, seems better in bringing the tyres into the optimum temperature range at the race start and at the restarts from Safety Car periods.
Red Bull, in search of maximum aerodynamic efficiency, has introduced a novelty in the beam wing that was designed by Adrian Newey in a different way from the others who limited themselves to stacking two flaps in cascade, one on top of the other, while on the RB18 the two profiles have been mounted one in front of the other to give the sensation of the existence of a double floor, useful for extracting the flow from the extractor. In Jeddah, the tail element was slightly cut to reduce drag.
The Ferrari, thanks to the balance achieved at Sakhir, has remained essentially the same, but there is an important difference that separates the F1-75 and the Red Bull: the red car, as a result of the more downforce configuration, loses in terms of engine power on the straights, but can rely on more downforce coming out of slow corners, showing extraordinary traction qualities during acceleration.
The hollowed sidepods ensure an additional vertical thrust that allows the Ferrari to slightly raise the ground clearance to avoid the issue of bouncingng. David Sanchez and Enrico Cardile have found a good balance that allows the team to take advantage of a good balance that can be measured in tire management and excellent braking without frequent blocking.
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Unlike Ferrari, Red Bull seeks the minimum ground clearance to make the most of the ground effect generated by the Venturi channels. In the television shoot, Adrian Newey was seen crouching beside the RB18: the “genius” wanted to personally check how much the surface was crawling on the asphalt.
Not to the T-tray, since the front splitter has been reinforced this year and has (like the Ferrari) a shock absorber that prevents it from breaking, slowing the return to the natural position after a hit or a swipe on the asphalt. The Milton Keynes technicians focused attention on the “elbow” where the floor rises to become the extractor.
That is the point that Newey wants to touch on the floor of the track and for this reason he has chosen an upright set-up, with the nose slightly raised (the exact opposite of the Rake set-up we used to see last year), perhaps aiming to stall the diffuser to get those top speeds so high, while the Ferrari seems to have a more neutral behavior.
Two machines and two different philosophies which, so far, give similar results. On paper, the most extreme project of the RB18 should have more room for growth, but Mattia Binotto has said that he does not fear the challenge of developments as long as everybody respects the spending limits imposed by the budget cap.
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