F1 | Racing Bulls goes back: mix of new and old

Before Spain, Racing Bulls seemed to be ready to position itself as a top team in the mid-group, but right from Barcelona something changed. In fact, on Catalan soil, the Faenza team had brought another evolutionary step for the car which, however, did not give the hoped-for results.

An unexpected setback, also because it came at a critical moment of the season, that is, in a trio of races with very few opportunities to calmly analyze the data, leaving little time to take countermeasures. For example, the new rear wing should have been a good intermediate solution for high-medium load tracks, but it was shelved after the first free practice sessions due to a problem with the DRS activation system that the team was unable to resolve in the limited time available on track before Parc Fermé.

Beyond the rear wing, the problems involved more elements of the single-seater, so much so that in Austria it was decided to carry out a program parallel to the classic one of preparation for the weekend, in order to be able to compare the data by fitting two different packages on the two cars. There was no real comparison between the new and the old package, but rather it was a mix of solutions brought to Barcelona and some that had already had a few Grand Prix, to then settle on a common option between the two drivers.

The same process will be repeated at Silverstone, which means that both VCARB01s will not feature all the updates that debuted in the past Grands Prix. Instead, there will be a hybrid package that will include both new and “old” parts, but which will provide the team with reliable references in terms of correlations between the track and the wind tunnel.

“We will both use a hybrid package. So we use both new and old parts,” explained Yuki Tsunoda when asked whether or not they will use the new parts brought to the last Grands Prix, before adding that this misstep, while clearly not good for performance, can also represent an opportunity to grow and understand in which direction to direct development.

“We need to understand clearly what was the cause of the problem, but we have partly understood what are the reasons why we were not able to find the performance that we expected. It was actually a good learning for us, because the update that did not work told us what the problem is and allowed us to understand how to move forward for the future,” said the Japanese.

Fitting pieces from the old package allows you to have already known and working references to rely on, starting from the correlation between the data acquired in the wind tunnel and those obtained on the track: “All the updates are attributable to the aerodynamics department, so it is obvious that the correlation with the wind tunnel on the track must be perfect, and this is why we did not obtain on the track what we thought we would obtain compared to what they saw in the data”, said Daniel Ricciardo expressing his thoughts on the innovations.

RB F1 Team VCARB 01 technical detail

Picture of: George Piola

The package brought to Barcelona was clearly not limited to just a new rear wing, but also had new features on the sides, as well as the floor. Although the Faenza team has worked very well in the last year, so much so that almost all the updates have always allowed for a significant step forward, according to the Australian, during a season it can happen that some new features do not give the desired results in terms of performance.

“It can happen that new features turn out to be a downgrade during the season. Unfortunately, not all of them are improvements. But up until that point, I think everything we put on the car worked and gave us performance,” Ricciardo added, noting that in fact from about halfway through the 2023 season until the package that debuted a few weeks ago in Spain, each new feature provided an incremental step, leading the team to fight more consistently for the top ten. An excellent job, especially if you consider where the then AlphaTauri was at the start of last season.

“It’s also right to understand why it didn’t work, that will bring benefits. There needs to be a bit more understanding of this package, but at least with what we have currently we are sure we have the best parts on the car.”