Few changes made by F1 teams in Baku
Two weeks after the Monza Grand Prix, only three teams have made minor changes to their single-seaters for the trip to Azerbaijan: Red Bull, Aston Martin, and Racing Bulls.
For this 17th round of the Formula 1 World Championship in Baku, few teams have opted for modifications on their single-seaters. Some of them may be wary of the difficulties in improving the floor of the various machines encountered by different teams this season. After Aston Martin and Ferrari, it’s Mercedes that seemed to suffer after changing its own.
Some constructors prefer to wait and gather more data before taking action, as is the case with McLaren. The Papayas performed quite well in Monza and do not want to take any risks by introducing their new floor. Other teams may not have found a solution. Struggling in Italy, Alpine will present the same two cars in Baku, which does not bode well for Pierre Gasly, present at the press conference this Thursday: “We have a car similar to the one in Monza so, on paper, [the Azerbaijan GP] does not seem to be an easy weekend.”
Red Bull attempts to heal its woes.
One of the few teams to make changes is that of leader Max Verstappen. Struggling at Monza (the Dutchman 6th, Perez 8th), the Austrian firm must innovate if it wants to maintain the advantage over McLaren in the constructors’ championship. Appearing to have found solutions to bring to its RB20, Red Bull indicated that it had acted on conditioning the flow related to the performance of its floor. « The geometry of the underfloor tunnel is subtly revised by the local raising or lowering of surfaces » stated in the statement shared by the FIA.
Only two other teams have made adjustments. Aston Martin announced that it has modified the lower edge trim of the deflector located at the rear right of its floor. A minor revision, just like Racing Bulls which acted on its front wing, with a reduced curvature.
