Do three clues make a proof?
The roadmap of Max Verstappen, and especially that of Sergio Perez, highlight that in this first part of 2024 for Red Bull there have been two championships: the first lasted five races, from Bahrain to China, and in these five races the RB20 was constantly in front with both drivers, with the only exception of Australia where Verstappen retired after a few laps and Perez finished in fifth position. From Miami onwards, however, Verstappen’s talent made the difference, managing to obtain another three victories also thanks to less than perfect weekend executions by his opponents. Sergio Perez, on the other hand, after the fourth place in Miami (favoured by the penalty inflicted on Carlos Sainz) has never gone beyond a seventh place as his best result. The RB20 seems to be affected by understeer problems and Marko recently said that if the car is not well balanced at the rear for Verstappen it is “a little nervous”while for Perez it is “undriveable”. What could have happened between China and Miami?
On July 31st, it issued some changes to the regulations and on the technical front, the change to article 11.1.2 regarding braking systems stood out, which we analyzed in depth. The ‘updated’ article (the change from the original version is in bold) now reads: “The braking system must be designed so that, within each circuit, the forces applied to the brake pads are of the same magnitude and act as opposing torques on a given brake disc. Any system or mechanism which can systematically or intentionally produce asymmetric braking torques for a given axle is prohibited.“.
As reported by the journalist Peter Windsor on X It is possible that Red Bull had already implemented a system in the rear braking system to exploit the ‘asymmetric braking’ and that Max Verstappen’s retirement in Australia was decisive in ‘unmasking’ the RB20. Before Miami, Red Bull should have done without this system. Windsor’s tweet was commented on by the technical expert Craig Scarborough who stresses that it is a well-founded assumption and that it is linked precisely to the modification of the regulation by the FIA. “A simple valve in the rear brake splitter could serve this purpose. – Scarborough’s words – altering the action of the brake calipers when the car enters a curve. The entry is aided by the less intense braking force on the inside wheel which lightens the energy that is exerted on the outside wheel. A sort of return of Newey’s ‘third pedal’, but automatic”.
Also Paul Filisetti on racingnews365.com analyzed the topic: “A T-connector valve received a single hydraulic pressure directed to the rear axle from the brake-by-wire system that could be precisely directed with increased pressure to the left or right of the rear axle, depending on the direction of the car’s turning when cornering.. It is important to point out that the inertial valve is not part of the components supplied to the team by the braking system manufacturer, Brembo, and does not change its basic safety characteristics. Furthermore, the inertial valve only has its function when the car approaches the corner entry phase, since on a straight, at the start of the braking action, the pressure between the right and left remains identical, with the sphere positioned exactly in the center of the T”.
What advantages are obtained from this system? Scarborough limits itself to the lower consumption of tyres, according to Filisetti instead “Cornering precision becomes absolute and understeer disappears”. Red Bull, therefore, from Miami onwards may have had to deal with vehicle dynamics problems given that the front and rear axles were forced to ‘talk’ without a tool that greatly facilitated the car’s behavior in corners and which is very difficult to replicate in other ways. These reconstructions would explain why ‘suddenly’ the RB20 suffered from understeer and sometimes had evident difficulties in preparing the set-ups for the race weekends in the simulator. In conclusion, the Red Bull RB20 – if indeed these assumptions were true – was illegal at the start of the season? No, because in light of the wording of the technical regulation before the amendments published on 31 July there would have been no basis for an FIA sanction.
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