Red Bull has one goal in F1: to win with the RB21 and Max Verstappen. Clearly, the ambition seems to be limited to the drivers’ title alone, since the constructors’ championship, with this super McLaren and two strong drivers, is really complicated. All this considering that, within the Milton Keynes team, only Max is able to push the Austrian car to its limits, taking it higher than it sometimes deserves on a technical level.
The Milton Keynes team pushes on with updates
The Dutchman loves Imola. He knows very well that overtaking is anything but easy and, for this very reason, the need to start as far ahead as possible in the race — thanks to a strong qualifying — would allow him to get closer to his goals. The talent from Hasselt has spent several days in the factory training on the simulator. A very important training session that has given him more confidence in approaching the weekend.
Max Verstappen knows that the track by the banks of the Santerno River is very technical, and he doesn’t forget the potential issues with the curbs, keeping in mind that the blue racing car has shown it cannot “copy” the track’s bumps perfectly, suffering from excessive oscillations. A context in which time could be lost during acceleration phases if the setup on the RB21 is not adequate.
As our editorial staff anticipated back on April 8, Red Bull has brought aerodynamic updates to the car. The former world champion team needs to push hard if it wants to stay in the title fight, and there’s no better move than correcting the car to feed this ambition. So, the engineers led by Pierre Waché have updated the central area of the car.
Red Bull like Ferrari: sidepod inlets with aerodynamic profile
For the first European round — the Imola Grand Prix — the long-discussed package since Japan has arrived. Several aerodynamic updates aimed at improving the car’s overall drag and consequently gaining a few efficiency points, a crucial aspect under the current regulations governing the top tier of motorsport.
A potential advantage that will have to be verified on track, which could also help to further widen the car’s setup window, among other things. Moving to a concrete analysis of the first updates, based on the images coming in from the Italian pit lane, we immediately notice that the inlets of the RB21’s sidepods have been updated with a different shape compared to before.
In the new version, we see that the Austrian car has aligned itself with the solution currently in use on the Ferrari SF-25 since the beginning of the season. Unlike before, in fact, the contour of the inlet has been modified, essentially separating the intake mouth from the wing profile — that upper lip that the highly decorated team first introduced on the car two seasons ago with Adrian Newey.
RB21, static pressure work also underway
The most interesting change highlights precisely the transformation of this appendage into a true aerodynamic profile, similar to what has been done on the Ferrari. This modification, at least on paper, is intended to manage the airflow mass that then runs over the sidepods, providing greater shielding and at the same time protecting it from the turbulent flows running alongside the sidepod.
This change, overall and considering the entire car, should also have some positive consequences on the static pressure field generated in the undercut area. Additionally, on the Red Bull, a small vertical appendage is visible just below the intake mouth, which is tasked with directing the airflow that will later run along the lower sidepod area, improving airflow behavior in that region.
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