Giorgio Piola's F1 technical analysis
Revealed: How Red Bull added flavour to its F1 rear wing
If you had to describe the Red Bull RB16’s rear wing as a flavour until this point in F1 2020, it would have been vanilla, such was its simplicity when compared with far higher degrees of complexity elsewhere on the grid.
However, Red Bull unveiled a new rear wing for the Styrian Grand Prix that comprises no less than four new flavours, as the team takes note of what the competitors have got.
The new wing features four trademark design aspects that have appeared on endplates elsewhere on the grid, with the most obvious of those being the sinuous louvres found on the outer hanging strakes which first appeared on the Haas VF-19 (below left) in Germany last season. The serrated cutouts found in the upper rear corner of the endplate was a design also introduced by Mercedes (below right).
Haas F1 Team VF-19 rear wing detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Mercedes AMG F1 W10 rear wing detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The front upper corner of the endplate now shares some DNA with AlphaTauri, as it has folded the surface inwards (below left). This is a design decision that was also assimilated by Alfa Romeo during 2019 too, as it altered the rear wing’s drag-to-downforce ratio (below right).
Toro Rosso STR14 rear wing detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Alfa Romeo Racing C38 rear wing detail
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The team has also added a number of upwash strakes, a feature seen on most of the cars up and down the grid and that helps to tie in the various flow structures that are now being created by the new aerodynamic features of the rear wing endplate.
Red Bull hopes that the addition of this new rear wing will not only help to counter the top speed advantage that Mercedes held over them last weekend but also stabilise the rear end, which was noticeably twitchy on occasions.
While Max Verstappen was the only Red Bull driver to use the new nose solution last weekend, it appears that both have it available now.
Red Bull Racing RB16 front wing Austrian GP
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
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