Formula One car development blog

Even though it's been known for a while, recent thermal imagery has shown the true effects of rim coatings to manage tyre temperatures. The coatings were first photographed on Mercedes AMG's Advanti wheels, featuring dimples on the inside of the rim as well (inset). Later on, Red Bull was confirmed to also use a similar treatment of their OZ Racing wheels, although in their case the inside of the wheels features grooves rather than dimples. Ferrari meanwhile are said to be coating t... Read more

Red Bull Racing appears extremely determined to break the competition and secure the titles as soon as possible to be able to focus 100% on the 2014 project. As Monza hasn't been the strongest of venues for RBR, the team has gradually been pinpointing its weakest points and improving those, resulting in the impressive form displayed by the RB9 on Friday.

The team have basically brought two new front wing configurations. The first one featuring a cut out upper flap as used by Sebasti... Read more

Even though it has been a point of interest since the very beginning of the season, the possibility of Red Bull Racing to run such shallow rear wings and still retain great traction is something that draws much attention. The team continues to do this as it is seemingly the most efficient way for them to keep up their top speed nearby to what other cars can achieve.

Of course, at Hungary, maximum downforce is required, and there the team ran a very big rear wing, but so were all oth... Read more

Red Bull Racing have been working on the sidepod area to better control airflow at the rear of the car. Part of its update package included a sidepod panel with modified bridge, making one of the vortex generators obsolete. Inward of the remaining vortex generator is a new flow conditioner, similar but less wide than the version seen on the Lotus E21. It is interesting to note that Red Bull's bridge that connected the sidepod to the vertical fence is very neutral, whereas the versio... Read more

Red Bull Racing have likely kicked off a new trend in Formula One, as the team appeared with obvious coating on the car's floor, downstream of the exhausts. With the RB9 having one of the most effective designs to pull the exhaust gases down to the car's floor to seal the diffuser, its carbon fibre floor is also very much exposed to the heat of the burning hot exhaust gases flowing over the floor. Such single sided heat exposure is a risk for the carbon fibre laminate which may end ... Read more

In an interesting turn of events, Red Bull Racing have introduced a different nose cone for its RB9 at Canada, one that drops a bulge underneath the nose that was added on the RB8 back in Singapore 2012. Right now, when Ferrari is testing its own nose bulge for the first time, Red Bull crucially drop it, opting for a very flat nosecone.

At the same time, the cameras have also been moved from the tip of the nose to a more traditional position just ahead of the upper front suspension ... Read more

Contrary to several other teams that focus on introducing major upgrade packages at once, Red Bull is steadily improving its car by adding small changes each and every Grand Prix. At Monaco, the team had a new rear wing endplate, copying a feature that was debuted by Williams and later also copied by Marussia and McLaren.

The vertical opening close to the leading edge of the endplate creates a small vertical aerofoil with the aim to pull more air in between the endplates. The lower ... Read more

After rumours emerged in the Italian press about RBR's alternator, Renault Sport have now confirmed to F1Technical that Red Bull Racing is indeed using a McLaren Electronic System alternator in combination with the Renault engine. The firm notes this is the case "for some time now", with all other Renault powered teams still using the Magnetti Marelli alternators, similar to last year.

Renault's technical director, Rob White, says this is the result of the problems during 2012: "We ... Read more

Red Bull introduced a new beam wing on its RB9 this weekend at Bahrain. The new version will generate a little bit less downforce than the more conventional one used during the first 3 races of the season. Although a smaller beam wing it itself is nothing special, the roundings on the trailing edge of the wing are interesting indeed. The element is aimed at generating more downforce close to the centreline of the car while the reduced frontal area will cause less drag and downforce ... Read more

Red Bull Racing have copied Williams' hollow front wheel axle and wheelnut to allow air to pass through. Identical to the Williams version that was used since winter testing, the wheel nut is empty in the middle, which allows air caught by the brake ducts to flow out in an attempt to control the front wheel's wake. The latter is an important factor for rear downforce and also explains why teams are not using a similar system on the rear wheels, where it is more beneficial to have sm... Read more