Max Verstappen made his talent available to Red Bull to win the Made in Italy and Emilia Romagna GP. Those who were saying that the Dutchman won the world championship thanks to an unbeatable car, in Imola got a clear idea of what Max’s contribution could be to the final result, both in the conquest of pole position and in the final victory ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris.
The team from Milton Keynes arrived in Italy for the first time without the support of Adrian Newey, invaluable not only in naming the technical innovations, but also in defining the setups and the most suitable set-up for each circuit. The Englishman has closed his long chapter of success with Red Bull and is allowing himself a period of rest before returning to the F1 arena. There is a lot of talk about Ferrari, but it’s not just the Cavallino vying for the “genius ”.
Red Bull’s technical responsibility is entrusted to Pierre Waché: the Frenchman brought a package of updates to Emilia Romagna that were a little underestimated. Usually when the world champion team introduces changes, they work straight away. At Imola, however, the new features did not allow Verstappen to immediately find the right aerodynamic balance. In free practice on Friday we saw Max and Sergio Perez suffer with frequent long runs especially in the second sector, with a car rather prone to understeer.
Comparison of the front wings of the Red Bull RB20
Photo by: Uncredited
On the RB20 we noticed a new front wing with changes to the newly designed adjustable flap: towards the slightly revised side bulkhead (green hatching) it sought a greater out wash of the flows, while in the innermost portion it showed profiles with an increased chord ( white hatching), had different junctures at the snout.
Detail of the front wing of the Red Bull Racing RB20
Picture of: Giorgio Piola
Small changes also concerned the fixing of the cameras to the side of the nose with a different connection towards the nose in search of greater profiling without having to resort to new homologation crash tests.
Detail of the new Red Bull Racing RB20 bottom seen in Imola
Photo by: Erwin Jaeggi
Furthermore, the RB20 offered us a new bottom floor: the area that covers the lower anti-intrusion cone has been redesigned, as have the enlarged vents to push the flow into the low pressure area beyond the rear wheels. As a result of these changes in the flow of the air, the side wing, which cantilevers over the trailing edge of the pavement, was also redesigned.
Not only that, but the rear corner has also been adjusted with the new brake duct characterized by a cascade of stacked flaps, half facing upwards and others turned downwards.
Red Bull at Imola didn’t “like” all these changes and it took intense night-time work by test driver Jake Dennis on the simulator to at least find a good setup basis. The feeling is that the upgrade did not give the expected results and that Verstappen, after dealing with an undriveable car, sought not so much the performance increase of the new features, but a set-up that would not make driving critical for him.
And after having worked on the heights from the ground with the shims on the front pull rod tie rod and having carried out spring tests by replacing the bars, the Milton Keynes technicians dedicated themselves to fine tuning, acting on the convergence to correct the understeer. Instead of aiming for “open” front wheels, they tried to “close” the front. The RB20 seemed more balanced, but also more difficult to drive at the limit. Ask Sergio Perez, missing all weekend…
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
#Red #Bull #understeer #closing #front #convergence
