Let’s discover the Red Bull RB19, Max Verstappen’s newest rocketship

One of the golden rules that apply in Formula 1 is that you must never overturn a single-seater that has proved to be winning. This is undoubtedly the thought that inspired the Milton Keynes engineers in conceiving the shapes and details of the new Red Bull RB19.

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After a 2022 year in which the English-Austrian team defeated the competition from Ferrari, the car at Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez disposal for this season stands as a "simple" evolution of the last RB18. Let's find out what has changed technically.

Front end with new nosecone and a very “low downforce” front wing

Among the new elements of the RB19 we immediately notice the nosecone, the tip of which is now more squared than last year, as well as presenting a ventilation duct for the cockpit that we could describe as NACA-style (instead of the oval shaped one on the RB18).

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But the real surprise was certainly the new front wing with an extremely reduced chord, to such an extent as many thought - in the presentation phase - about a specification intended for low-load circuits, see Monza. Instead, contrary to what was suspected, the team ran with that wing - and obtained a crushing one-two - in the first round in Bahrain.

It is therefore understandable how the car bodywork is able to generate a fair amount of aerodynamic load such as to be able to afford the "unloaded" wings, to the full advantage of aerodynamic efficiency and top speed. This advantageous characteristic, unfortunately for the opponents, is very difficult to replicate: it is not enough to introduce aerodynamic updates in the underbody area to unload the wings, as it is always necessary to consider the entire single-seater as a single body, in which the geometry of each component affects not only every other part downstream, but also upstream!

By this we mean that radically modifying (from race to race) the geometry of a front wing will certainly not give benefits compared to a layout already optimized with CFD and in the wind tunnel, given that this change - in 99% of cases - will integrate badly with other areas of the car.

In terms of the front suspension, there are no particular evolutions to report, but as mentioned at the beginning it would have been less profitable for Red Bull to work on an area in which they are already able to make a difference: the front suspension pull-rod compartment mounted on the RB18 from 2022, you will remember, was one of the key areas where everyone sticked their finger to explain the incredible (albeit low) tyre degradation enjoyed by the car, especially in the second half of the season.

Sidepods: Red Bull stays true to the “downwash” philosophy, and the undercut has been further broadened!

The central area of this generation of ground-effect cars is known to be the one in which the imagination of the designers can have free rein: the RB19 is no exception, since while maintaining the aerodynamic philosophy that has distinguished its predecessor, it introduces some elements that will surely be replicated among the rival teams…

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As mentioned, the sidepods stay true to the downwash philosophy well known to the Milton Keynes team: the aim is to exploit the Coanda effect to direct the flows downwards, thus feeding the upper side of the diffuser. This, in turn, makes it possible to improve the air extraction from the underbody, with important advantages in terms of downforce generation.

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The fact that the aerodynamic concept has remained the same has allowed the engineers led by Pierre Wache (and by the evergreen Adrian Newey) to refine some details: let's see which ones.

• The sidepod inlets, in which the radiators and the side impact protection structures (SIPS) are housed, have been raised: this required a repositioning of the radiators themselves, with the aim of increasing the undercut (the volume left free for the air that flows around the sidepods themselves, possibly aerodynamically sealing the underfloor);
• In the forward area of the side edges of the underfloor there are two flaps whose objective is to generate vortices that can, in turn, seal the lower portion of the underfloor from the surrounding environment…

As often repeated, an underfloor is able to generate a lot of aerodynamic load if it is able to accommodate a high speed airflow whose pressure is indeed lower than the ambient one: we therefore speak of "negative pressure" generated from the underfloor. If some higher pressure air were to infiltrate under the floor through its side edges, this would lower the speed of the airflow that feeds it and - ultimately - we would end up with a car with little downforce, and moreover unstable (very susceptible to sudden changes).

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• At the back of the underfloor side edges, behind the two aforementioned flaps, a longitudinal cut has appeared since the presentation (and has been kept on the car until now) which creates a sort of "blade": its purpose is not to contribute to the aerodynamic sealing of the underfloor, but to relieve the extreme sensitivity of the underfloor itself to variations in ride height. Let's try to understand what this means...

As you may have observed from the television images, when a Formula 1 single-seater approaches a high speed corner, it tends to be "pushed" on the ground, to a point where the underfloor edges literally touch the asphalt. When this happens, the car is subject to high aerodynamic sensitivity, which leads to a sudden loss of balance. Having a "blade" creates a space through which air can flow freely, restoring the desired aerodynamic balance.

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Among other things, the Red Bull engineers paid great attention during the preseason testing to the correct functioning of this component, applying huge quantities of paraffin on the same area. For those not accustomed to flow-viz, it is a technique of visualizing airflows using a paint composed of fluorescent pigments of an oily matrix (paraffin, in fact).

Rear end: more traction with the new rear suspension, and a new rear wing

The peculiarity of the rear end of the new Red Bull lies in a rear suspension which, while maintaining the push-rod layout, now features a modification of the kinematics, in order to improve traction when accelerating away from low speed corners. The way in which it performs this function is by maintaining the tyre contact patch with the ground as constant as possible.

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In fact, as can be seen, the upper triangle now has a configuration that we could define as "arrow-shaped", i.e. with the two wishbones oriented at opposite angles to the perpendicular to the vehicle. In simpler terms, whereas on the RB18 the rear wishbone of the upper triangle was perfectly perpendicular to the vehicle axis, on the new RB19 it "points" backwards - hence the "arrow" mentioned.

The final portion of the rear end, instead, features a beam wing with two “medium load” elements, on which blows an airflow previously "manipulated" by the engine cover geometries. We are referring to the often mentioned letterbox cooling, with a very wide outlet section which is parallel to the beam wing.

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Finally, deliberately avoiding further talks about the ever-evolving diffuser, it is worth mentioning the new rear wing design. This is a macro element that was already particularly aerodynamically efficient last year, but which has been further enhanced through a curved profile along its entire chord, similar to what Ferrari introduced starting from the 2022 Canadian GP.

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The Bahrain Grand Prix was literally dominated by both Red Bull RB19s, driven with ease by a Max Verstappen never worried by any opponent. Although each track makes its own story, the performance advantage currently enjoyed by the World Champion team can hint to a 2023 that will be a totally winning campaign for them...