Red Bull is divided on two fronts at the moment. On the one hand the awareness that he is in difficulty in terms of performance to defend the drivers’ championship from a McLaren that has now become a reference, on the other the hope that Austin’s updates can relaunch the RB20 after a difficult period.
Speaking about the current problems, many members of the Milton Keynes team underlined how at the basis of this drop in performance there was a development that followed the wrong direction, with a lack of correlation between the data obtained on the track and that from the wind tunnel . An element that weighs heavily from a development perspective, especially when it then becomes difficult to trace the causes of this misalignment in terms of data.
“The balance is disconnected front and rear. We see this from the data. It doesn’t appear from our wind tunnel, but from the track data it is evident. So it’s something we need to understand because when there’s a problem like that, it means you can’t trust your tools. you have to go back to the track data and previous experience,” explained Christian Horner in recent weeks on the lack of correlations.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Images
Currently the wind tunnel in use by Red Bull is among those with the longest history behind it and is not located in Milton Keynes, but in Bedford, just under an hour from the team’s headquarters. A distance that is not insurmountable but which clearly requires travel and a certain degree of organization to test new things, especially considering that the composites department, where modifications can be made to the models in use in the tunnel, is located in Milton Keynes.
To give you an idea, one of the strengths of the Aston Martin wind tunnel will not only be the fact that it will be extremely modern and with much more advanced sensors, but also that it will be directly connected to the composites department at Silverstone, so that the technicians will be able to intervene more quickly. Clearly, however, when evaluating the effectiveness of a wind tunnel there are also different elements that must be taken into consideration.
Speaking about the problems affecting Red Bull’s wind tunnel, Helmut Marko said there are several aspects that are limiting the engineers’ work now that the challenge is becoming more and more intense. “A more modern wind tunnel would help at this time. Our wind tunnel is a post-war model built by the British Army. And of course it has its disadvantages: the outside temperature, the very long distances, the warm-up time and everything else. We are now far behind on this front,” explained the Red Bull consultant in an interview with Motorsport.com’s sister publication, Motorsport-Total.com. In fact, even the internal temperature must reach a certain target and if the external air is too hot or cold, it takes longer to obtain the desired target.
Elements that must be taken into account, not only because the current tunnel is showing its limits, but also because with the current system of hours in the wind tunnel based on ranking position, Red Bull has had less time than the other teams available to develop your own car. Precisely for this reason, it becomes crucial to be efficient and make the most of the hours granted by the regulation.
McLare has built a new wind tunnel and it is one of the strong points in the newfound competitiveness
Photo credit: McLaren
Aspects of which Red Bull is aware and, not surprisingly, since last year, even before the decline seen during this season, it has invested in the construction of a new wind tunnel, which will no longer be in Bedford, but close to the Milton Keynes headquarters, thus guaranteeing various advantages. A theme that also pushed Racing Bulls to move its headquarters from Bicester, where there is a wind tunnel which however has not been used for three years, to Milton Keynes, where the engineers will be able to take advantage of all the new structures it is putting in place. standing Red Bull.
The project is already under construction, but clearly it will take quite a long time. This will mean that the new wind tunnel cannot be used not only for the development of the 2025 car, but not even for the creation of the 2026 single-seater, the one with which a technical revolution will also have a great impact on the aerodynamic level. Although this will be an era in which Power Units will certainly have a significant role, it will be equally central to quickly understand how to make aerodynamics work best, in a subtle balance between the load and the drag generated.
The hope is that, as explained by Marko, the new wind tunnel can be in operation as early as 2026, in order to help in the development and, in order to reduce construction times, the Red Bull consultant underlined how is thinking about a particular approach. “The wind tunnel is under construction and we have also purchased our building because, if you manage to fit certain elements together and fit all the pieces, you can save even half a year in construction time and this is possible with this building”.
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