Presentations 2018: A Red Bull that adopts and improves on competitors’ concepts
As planned, the Red Bull RB14 was presented at Silverstone before taking to the track for a few laps. A brief overview of notable technical innovations.
Beyond the surprise caused by the provisional livery of the 2018 Red Bull, this RB14 includes five interesting new features to analyze.
Firstly, you can see that the foremost point of the suspension is mounted particularly high and angled downward to promote good aerodynamics. See arrow 5.
Same goes for the part near the tires that is designed to redirect the air towards the rear of the car. See arrow 4.
This modification is strongly inspired by the work done by Mercedes and Toro Rosso in 2017.
Like on the Haas and Williams, Red Bull has adopted side-pods similar to those of the 2017 Ferrari, pushed towards the rear, thus limiting the aerodynamic inefficiency created by the wake of the front wheels. But the engineers of Adrian Newey’s teams have gone further by adopting a very narrow opening that certainly works in concert with the new suspension concept. See arrow 6.
Above the side-pods, you can observe the presence of a deltoid-shaped fin similar to the one used by Toro Rosso last year. This fin extends beyond the side-pod to form a sort of wing with the aim of creating a vortex to clean the dirty airflow heading towards the rear wing. See arrow 7.
The engine cover is quite compact and features several panels to allow for developments in this area throughout the season and therefore improve the cooling of the power unit.
Let’s break down the @Red BullRacing RB14…https://t.co/rSOP5EIIhh#TechF1 pic.twitter.com/r0rC8BOANJ
— Matthew Somerfield 🅢🅞🅜🅔🅡🅢Ⓕ① (@SomersF1) 19 février 2018
To conclude, you can see that the halo painted in black is positioned very far back and has already been modified to reduce its harmful impact on air flow. See photo below:
— Craig Scarborough (@ScarbsTech) 19 février 2018
