Formula One car development blog

Red Bull Racing have brought another aerodynamic step to its car at Singapore, and most notably that includes a new diffuser. The new design has changed mostly in the centre part of the car, around the double decked area. Where the older version focused on speeding up air on the lower channel, the new iteration has a bigger central channel around the crash structure to profit more of the DDD design. The central part is now very similar to the Renault or Brawn diffusers.

One detail m... Read more

Despite its medium downforce setup that the circuit of Spa-Francorchamp requires, the high speed corners still demand a fair amount of front downforce. Red Bull have taken this quite literally and have introduced a new front wing, or at least a new upper element on the wing.

While it as previously one continuous element, a small vertical fence now seperates the inward side - still unchanged - and the outward side which has a much larger angle of attack than before. The modification ... Read more

It was only back in Monaco that Red Bull introduced its revised package aimed to benefit from a new double decker diffuser, and now again the RB5 is fitted with an update. The element is possibly as good an improvement as the original DDD was.

This time around the new diffuser now spans the maximum width, while previously the team, along with Toro Rosso, was the only not to use this. All diffusers of the RB5 in the first 7 races were the width of the rear wing, with its endplate ext... Read more

Red Bull were starting to miss their duck resembling noses and hence changed the previous one to one that more fits its tradition. The new nose is wider and also slightly higher than the version which the team used for the first 7 Grand Prix. In order to prevent the obligated camera housing from mixing up the airflow too much, the team chose to move them forward as much as possible, effectively putting them to use as straighteners for the airflow alongside the nose cone.

Also note t... Read more

It's finally there! There has been talk about it for more than a month, but Adrian Newey's design team have finished their version of a double deck diffuser, a device that brings several tenths of a second per lap. Newey has however claimed that while it will be some step at Monaco, the new design should benefit the car more at circuits with high speed corners.

The new diffuser adds an exit channel above and ahead of the usual one which has a constant height over the whole span of t... Read more

Somehow the previous design must have been a fairly efficient one as Red Bull have been using the round brake duct (left of image) since at least the beginning of 2008. As of that design, Red Bull have always consistently built their ducts from Windform XT, a rapid prototyping material often used to create the models tested in windtunnels.

The latest design is from the same material but changes the shape of the air inlet. The outer part, closest to the wheel is now (right of image) ... Read more

Formula One teams often open up extra cooling apertures in the bodywork to allow better cooling for the car's internals. The hot temperatures have forced Red Bull to open the tail end of the engine cover, just where the shark fin begins. Additionally, on each side of the cockpit, one small opening was made. Any aperture further away from the cockpit is impossible due to this year's regulations.

Equally interesting is to see how the car is designed to provide as smooth as possible ai... Read more

As the teams are coming out with their final Melbourne aerodynamic packages, Red Bull once again drew all the spots to itself with a new type of shark fin never seen before. While all previous versions could be considered an extension of the engine cover, the new one actually connects to the rear wing. The element stretches up to the maximum height of the car, connecting the top of the airbox with the midpoint of the upper rear wing element. As such, the rear wing is effectively sp... Read more

It's been a while, but Red Bull have brought the pull rod back to Formula One, and with reason! The last pull rod dates from 2000 with the low nosed Arrows A21 which featured a pull rod. Because of Red Bull's choice to create very low sidepods at the back end, a push rod did not make much sense as the suspension components would prevent a clean airflow anyway. Hence, the new version has allowed the designed to put more components close to the car's floor, lowering its centre of grav... Read more

Red Bull have always claimed that taking the time to develop the new car would prove right, and thus far it appears to be true. From all launched cars, the RB5 is without doubt the most interesting. Those who expected a dull car from Adrian Newey don't know their history too well, as the designer tends to shine upon radical regulation changes.

This time around, the RB5 has the most advanced front wing out there, featuring a triple element base wing that points sharply upwards ahead ... Read more