A lot more was expected of Red Bull in Austria, with the RB16 expected to be closer in performance to the Mercedes W11, but that failed to materialise on a circuit which has traditionally suited them.
The Hungaroring is another circuit that Red Bull often does well at, but on Friday it looked as though Mercedes would yet again dominate, with Lewis Hamilton well clear of his rivals.
Red Bull has introduced an update this weekend though as it looks to increase rear grip and traction out of Hungary’s many slow-to-medium speed corners.
A new rear-wing, very different to what we saw them run in Austria, was trialled during Friday practice and again on Saturday morning.
The new high-downforce rear-wing has a much greater surface area than that run in Austria, to transmit a greater amount of downforce to the rear axle and ensure better traction exiting the corner.
To increase the downforce, the deck wing (or t-wing) has also been introduced, located at the end of the engine cover. A wing profile which, compared to other teams, is very simple in design and completely horizontal. In the image above we see the comparison between Styria and the solution brought to Budapest.
Comparative tests have also been run between the new and old endplate design, with the new specification featuring the additional series of blowholes in a similar style to the Haas. This is a solution helps to clean the swirling air flows generated by the rotating of the rear tyres, with a completely different management of the air masses compared to the previous solution, consisting of a single large opening, very simple in concept.
On Friday Red Bull also temporarily shelved their updated front nose which features narrow pylons, instead returning to the old pre-season test solution.
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