While its rivals are looking for ways to close the performance gap, Red Bull is not sitting still as work continues on a car that will evolve from last year’s dominant RB18.

Building on these solid foundations, and dealing with the new complexities brought about by new bottom line regulations, Red Bull focused on a few key areas to discover performance gains.

One of the main differences between last year’s Challenger and the RB19 is the location of the front suspension, with subtly revised components to improve various aspects.

Contrary to the heavy racing, Red Bull has opted for a pull-rod front suspension layout for the new generation of cars, while the rear returns to a push-rod layout for the first time since 2008, with Red Bull pivoting from 2009 to the end of the last regulation era, from the grid A massive shift to drawbars.

While the mechanics of the suspension are clearly still the dominant factor in the decision, the aerodynamics of the car are always a trade-off. With these new regulations, most tracks have opted for an upper wishbone layout similar to Red Bull’s, with the front arms mounted high on the chassis and the rear arms suspended low.

However, Red Bull does have a more extreme example. From a mechanical standpoint, not only does this help reduce dive under braking, but it also has an aerodynamic advantage, as the airflow is redirected to a more desirable location under and around the sidepods.

Red Bull Racing wheelbase comparison (anti-dive, inset)

photographer: George Piola

Wishbone fairings offer an aerodynamic advantage as they have been tailored to further improve their flow characteristics. It’s something other teams have tried to build upon, with both Mercedes and Alfa Romeo resorting to chassis blisters to further enhance the effect.

But Red Bull has realized that the position of its front axle relative to the rest of the aerodynamic surface is suboptimal for 2022, and the whole assembly has been moved forward this season. Not only does this have a mechanical impact on the suspension layout, but also on the performance of the tires.

From an aerodynamic point of view, the movement of the axis changes the behavior of the turbulent wake created by the wheel assembly. This has resulted in Red Bull being able to make macro and micro changes to the aerodynamic surfaces upstream and downstream of components to extract more performance.

Its update push has officially begun in Australia as the Milton Keynes team revises the design of its front wing end panels and associated architecture to change the flow around the car’s front corners.

The end plates are now more curved at the top and mid-section, which provides more of a swooping plane for oncoming water. This should also improve flushing, which is probably why the team made tweaks to the inner flapping parts of the wings.

To make this tradeoff work, the new flaps on the top two elements of the wing are different in the middle of their span. More strings appear at the inboard end, and more camber all the way to the outboard regulator.

Red Bull quickly followed suit with a major change to its sidepod air intake design in Azerbaijan, with the air intake lowered to increase the size of the undercut but widened to maintain cooling capacity.

Red Bull Racing RB19 sidepod comparison, Azerbaijan Grand Prix

photographer: George Piola

The rest of the sidepod geometry has also been subtly tweaked as the body widens around the air intakes. This takes advantage of the extra space provided for the undercut to improve the physical interaction with the floor and its aerodynamic affinities.

To fully complement the changes made to the sidepods, attention was also paid to the geometry of the floor edges and the aerodynamic furniture mounted on them, all of which have been redesigned to improve their performance in line with the other changes.

To further capitalize on these efforts, changes were made to the exterior floor rails, with the top edge lightly massaged to better tune local airflow and take advantage of changes made downstream.

As other teams look to take the lead at Red Bull, they hope the size of the resources available to each team based on their championship position and penalties for breaching cost-cap rules prevents the pace at which RB19 can improve further. By then, Red Bull hopes, both world champions will be included.