Red Bull’s RB20 has been the ‘talk of the paddock’ as they’ve taken a dramatic development path away from their all conquering RB19 and down a path first developed by Mercedes in 2022.
The RB20 has notably ditched the large sidepod cooling inlets that are widespread up and down the pit lane, instead opting to run two very slim channel inlets – a vertical one and a horizontal one – allowing for the maximum amount of air to flow around the sculpted sidepods.
This is something Mercedes attempted when they launched the W13 ahead of the 2022 season. That car took everyone by surprise with its ‘zero-sidepods’. In theory this allows the maximum amount of airflow which can be channeled through the rear of the car, increasing downforce. But in practice, Mercedes just couldn’t make it work and ditched the concept part-way through the 2023 season.
Red Bull however have obviously trialled a similar idea in their simulations and found great gains, why else would they move away from the concept of their RB19 which won 21 out of the 22 races last year?
The sidepod inlets play an important role in cooling the engine, gearbox, oil and more, but unfortunately that causes drag and teams therefore try to reduce their size, but it’s often a balancing act of performance vs reliability.
In Red Bull’s launch imagery it appeared there were no inlets whatsoever, but as pre-season testing has got underway in Bahrain it’s become clear that there are two very slim inlets within the sidepod, albeit not enough to generate the airflow required to cool all the necessary components.
However further photos have revealed two hidden inlets within the cockpit. The inlets are positioned either side of the driver and are actually beneficial in their positioning as they’re more likely to receive cooler, cleaner air than those positioned lower.
To achieve this, the RB20 has got incredibly high sides to accommodate the inlets and the channels required to direct that air within the engine cover as can be seen in the below photo, which is again very similar to the Mercedes W13.
There are also rumours Red Bull will introduce a heavily revised car later this season, potentially as early as the Japanese Grand Prix, which will introduce the ‘zero-sidepod’ concept which failed so miserably for Mercedes, prompting them to abandon the idea altogether and go down the same route as Red Bull’s RB19.
Have Red Bull stolen yet another march on their rivals? Only time will tell, but testing has so far gone well for the team with Max Verstappen topping the opening day and completing the most laps, whilst Sergio Perez was second quickest on Thursday, again completing the most laps of any driver.
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