Red Bull is modifying its sidepods for the last day of testing
Red Bull has released a slightly modified race car for the ultimate day of testing in Bahrain. The side pods of the RB18 have evolved.
The Austrian team delivered a little surprise on their car during the third and final day of testing in Bahrain. Sergio Perez’s RB18 took to the track this morning with a slightly modified sidepod. The improvement proposed by Red Bull features a cutout line in the middle of the flank, visible at the “A” of the Oracle sponsor.
Max Verstappen’s team is thus seeking to better manage the airflow surrounding the car since the design of the side pods has primarily aerodynamic importance. There is no guarantee that Red Bull will start the season with these new side pods at the Bahrain Grand Prix, but the team is experimenting with different configurations. To test this novelty, Sergio Perez drove this morning with flow-vis, the yellow paint used to visualize the path of the airflow on the car.
The improvements brought by Red Bull, however, are not as extreme as those at Mercedes. The German team has almost completely removed the side pods from their car between the Barcelona and Bahrain tests. For now, everything seems to be working well at Red Bull as Sergio Perez has currently set the fastest time of the three days of testing in Bahrain this morning.
