F1 | Red Bull changes philosophy: in Baku with a flat beam wing

Red Bull wants to erase Monza. In the Italian GP the world champion team collapsed to fourth place, fueling McLaren’s hopes that not only the Constructors’ title is up for grabs, but also the Drivers’ title.

Max Verstappen has not stepped onto the top step of the podium since the Spanish GP: six races have been held since Barcelona and the performance of the RB20 is declining. Red alert stuff that has gone off in the Milton Keynes facility where a rather heated post-Italian GP has been experienced, the likes of which have rarely been seen in recent years.

Baku is, like Monza, a track with very high-speed sections, so Red Bull hopes to regain competitiveness in Italy in the hope of draining McLaren’s pursuit. Sergio Perez stressed that in the simulator he had the feeling of feeling more at ease in the cockpit of the RB20 than in Monza.

Red Bull has kept the low downforce configuration with the bazooka-equipped engine cover. The rear wing is the one from the lowest range, but not trimmed like the one seen in the temple of speed, given the need to find traction on the section driven in the old city, but the novelty concerns the beam wing (white arrow).

The team led by Pierre Waché chose a solution with a single element that is almost flat, with a slight incidence on the trailing edge. And it is curious to note a greater triangular protrusion under the central exhaust of the Honda power unit.

Red Bull RB20: here is the trimmed rear wing of MOnza and the double beam wing

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

There is a clear change in trend compared to Monza where there was a mobile flap cut with visible waves and a two-element beam wing with the second very loaded. In Baku, on the contrary, a mobile flap with a higher chord is favored and the lower wing is unloaded. These are experiments that should be useful to find that balance that even the RB20 seems to have lost after the summer break.