Red Bull develop jagged barge boards

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Red Bull develop jagged barge boards

On Red Bull RB4 At GP Australia

Red Bull have recently developed a new barge board and introduced it at the Australian GP. It was used again in Malaysia and is likely to stay on the RB4. The new carbon panel also features a jagged upper edge, similar to Ferrari's design of several years. The jags are however not rectangular which makes it different from other designs.
Besides the main panel, there is a new, smaller panel ahead of the main barge board which helps direct airflow around the sidepods. The two boards are connected with a horizontal plane at the same height as the car's floor.
Also note the curl on the the extension at outer side of the barge board. It is currently a standard item on F1 cars and acts as a venturi for air that passes underneath.

By Tomba on 24-03-2008 | Aerodynamics

Comments

By humble sabot on 24-03-2008 at 19:47

The picture is too small to really see anything in the inset.

By Ian P. on 24-03-2008 at 20:31

Head-Line should read....

"RED BULL ON AERO JAGGED EDGE"

Ferrari has been using notched or stepped trailing edges for a number of years. I had undserstood this helped by generating a number of smaller vortecies rather than a large one. More likely the large is less stable.
Seems that this is also following the McLaren approach of many years to use large Barge Boards.
Is the lower Fin for aero purposes or is it for crash testing (side impact absorbtion).??

By Tomba on 24-03-2008 at 21:47

The inset really is only to show that it was previously not a jagged edged board.
The extra panel, as said wasn't there, the outer venturi was.