F1 | Red Bull: the Kangaroo jumps over curbs, extreme suspension?

There is alarm in Red Bull: the world champion team has lost two of the last three races and even in Imola, where he won, Max Verstappen struggled more than usual. McLaren won in Miami and Ferrari in Monte Carlo: two city tracks characterized by curbs, bumps and barriers close to the track.

Max Verstappen, after qualifying in Monaco, confessed that the RB20 proved to be a difficult car to drive: the Dutchman was prevented from attacking the curbs like his opponents did so, without the advantage that Red Bull had The previous year, some obvious defects in Adrian Newey’s car emerged.

The technicians directed by Pierre Waché had to deal with a set-up that was too rigid for the Principality to overcome the roughness of the terrain, but once softer setup choices were made, the situation did not improve, on the contrary. And even when the minimum height from the ground varied, the behavior of the RB20 in obvious difficulty did not change too much.

Max Verstappen put his champion skills to the test and placed his Red Bull in sixth place (not failing to give a “kiss” to the guard rails after St. Devote), while Sergio Perez did not go beyond a disappointing 18th place, remaining enmeshed in Q1. And for both of them the single-seater was a… kangaroo!

What’s happening to Red Bull, while Ferrari and McLaren are getting closer? Christian Horner tried to give an answer with lucid coldness…
“Racing Bulls uses our suspensions from last year and doesn’t seem to have the same problems as us – explained Christian – we need to understand, therefore, if there is something wrong with what we have modified”.

The Red Bull team principal, however, wants to broaden the analysis, looking for answers also in the recent past, giving the feeling that the suspension problem did not emerge suddenly this season.

“We also experienced this in Singapore last year, so there was another episode. And it becomes increasingly clear that there is an area we need to work on.”

And, then, it becomes interesting to try to understand what the orientation of the Milton Keynes team will be…

Extreme suspension for aerodynamics

With the introduction of the ground effect single-seaters in 2022, Red Bull has focused on the pull rod front suspension, preferring a push rod solution for the rear. Two systems in antithesis to what had been seen recently previously. Adrian Newey focused on two new concepts which he then progressively developed, not so much in search of improvements in the mechanical behavior of the car, but to take the purely aerodynamic aspects to the extreme.

It cannot be ruled out, at least on paper, that in order to achieve aerodynamic results on the RB20, aspects that made the car difficult to drive were taken to extremes. So far the advantages that the aerodynamic choices, even extreme ones, have given have far outweighed the possible problems. But now that Red Bull seems to have lost the technical superiority it demonstrated at the start of the championship, the scenario is destined to change. Verstappen and Perez can no longer afford to go around the curbs as they did in the past on certain circuits and the bounce of the RB20 on bumps makes the driving much more acrobatic and less precise.

Red Bull here is the evolution of the keel from the RB18 to the RB20

Picture of: Giorgio Piola

The front suspension has essentially remained that of the RB19 except that the anti-dive effect has been increased with the arm of the upper triangle being anchored to the extreme upper edge of the body and the rear one, however, being much more inclined downwards. If you look at the car from the front you can clearly see how each element of the suspension “works” to separate the different air flows.

Not only that, but also the front part of the body has been refined year after year with a keel-shaped lower part useful for reducing resistance to progress by reducing the section (red arrow).

The wheelbase is also slightly longer

Detail of the Red Bull RB20 front suspension: the arms are tilted forward to increase the wheelbase

Photo by: Filip Cleeren

To capture these aerodynamic results, some internal elements of the suspension and steering have been modified and moved accordingly. To complete the picture, it is worth remembering that the wheelbase of the car has also been slightly modified with the greater inclination of the arms towards the front. These are many small updates that make it difficult to understand the problem that regularly emerges on the most disconnected circuits, not just city ones. Verstappen was envied by everyone for his ability to carry a lot of speed into corners without too many trajectory corrections on the steering wheel, demonstrating fluid and aggressive driving.

In Monaco we also saw the three-time Dutch champion in difficulty. What will happen in Canada? It is true that the resurfacing of the road surface should have removed many bumps, but it is equally true that to make time it will be necessary to attack the curbs of the chicanes. Because in Montreal there is always the “wall of champions”, the wall of champions…