F1 | Does Red Bull want to close the mouth of the radiators in the bellies?

Red Bull fears Ferrari. Adrian Newey planned the development of the RB20 even before the season began, in the knowledge that his rivals would be getting closer already in the first races of this championship. The car from Milton Keynes expresses extreme aerodynamics thanks to a cooling system that has allowed the radiating masses to be divided onto four levels.

A package of innovations made its debut at Suzuka which also concerned the cooling system, so it was reasonable to think that the intervention had been designed to secure the reliability of the Honda RBPT H002 power unit, after in the first races the technicians directed by Pierre Waché had the opportunity to evaluate the functionality of the system.

Paul Monaghan, head of track engineers, however, was keen to underline that the changes were aimed at improving aerodynamic efficiency and, therefore, were designed to improve performance, given that the Japanese engine is the one that allows have smaller radiators.

The eye, inevitably, went to the appearance of a new air intake on the sides of the Halo attachment to the frame. Somehow it recalled a concept that Rory Byrne had introduced on the 1988 Benetton B188 which had given up the dynamic engine intake above the roll bar.

Alessandro Nannini on the Benetton B188 equipped with side air intakes: these powered the Ford engine

Picture of: Motorsport Images

Newey's development, however, seems to go in another direction: reducing the flow rate of the horizontal mouth of the main radiators, to make the front section of the bellies less and less resistant to advancement, moving the draft of fresh air into an area of high pressure, where there is already the bazooka, i.e. the bulge of the engine hood which brings the fresh flow with another intake (placed inside the sausage) to the service radiators located on the sides of the engine.

Red Bull RB20: the undercut under the radiator openings is very deep

Photo by: Ronald Vording

Despite what one might have thought at first, the new intake does not increase the air flow to the median radiators, but descends to cool the very forward-leaning cooling packs in the belly.

Since in recent weeks there has been talk of a transformation of the RB20 into a “zero pods” single-seater, it is reasonable to suspect that in Milton Keynes, in the future, they may think about reducing, if not actually eliminating the horizontal mouth in the upper part of the bellies, maintaining only the vertical slot which is designed for the heat exchanger positioned almost on the bottom floor.

The project could be very ambitious and futuristic, going in the direction of Mercedes who failed to make it work on the W13 and, initially, on the W14. In Newey's evolutions we saw a radiator mouth that gradually became smaller in section, first thanks to the arched tray placed in front of the intake and now on the RB20 with a flow conveyor which on the contrary acts as a “lid”. Do we want to do without the horizontal grip, being able to fold the upper anti-intrusion cone into an airfoil as they had thought of in Brackley, perhaps reviewing the flow rate at the sides of the Halo?

It is clear that the modularity of this extraordinary cooling system allows the openings to be adapted also according to the characteristics of the world championship tracks, having the option to return to more traditional solutions if reliability problems emerge in the hot summer GPs.

Red Bull RB20: Note the flow diverter as an added mirror support

Photo by: Ronald Vording

The small flow diverter that has been mounted in addition to the mirror supports is useful for directing the air so that there is the best filling of the intakes on the sides of the bazooka.

Red Bull RB20: here is the modification to the floor seen in Japan

Picture of: Giorgio Piola

Red Bull has also modified the lateral floor of the bottom and changed the cantilevered “scimitar” of the trailing edge: in search of more load, the curvature of the added element has been increased which connects better at the meeting point with the pavement extending towards the rear (red arrow).

Newey introduced a new concept and, now, he intends to radicalize it. It will be interesting to find out how far he wants to go without running into reliability problems, but certain experiments could also be aimed at the idea of ​​a 2026 single-seater which should be decidedly narrower than ground effect cars…