Technical Insight: New rear-wing endplate for Red Bull

Red Bull has introduced yet more updates at only the second race of the season – round two at the Red Bull Ring.

The this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix, the RB16 received a new rear-wing design, specifically the endplates which have a number of modifications compared to those use last weekend.

Adrian Newey continues to take inspiration from rival cars, even those that aren’t at the top of the timing screens, with Haas offering up an endplate innovation that has clearly impressed the Red Bull design guru.

The RB16’s previous endplate was incredibly simple in its design, with just a single split where the endplate narrows inwards, whereas the new one features five tapered ‘blow’ holes.

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The large air slot in front of the ‘blow’ holes also has a different shape, and in the new solution it is wider and follows the edge of the endplate.

This solution was probably planned to debut in Hungary, but Red Bull, like Ferrari, have decided to fast-track the update for this weekend in the hope of recovering some aerodynamic load.

The RB16 seemed like a potentially competitive car in Austria, but that still lacks some aerodynamic creativity, and we have often referred to it as an “immature” design.

Another tweak to the endplate is the addition of a series of ‘steps’, which are inspired by a solution adopted by Mercedes (and by Racing Point).

It was also seen during free practice two that the Anglo-Austrian team used the old floor specification, without the vortex generators near the rear wheels. A rather strange step backwards, above all because the new floor had been confirmed both in qualifying and in the race last week.

Evidently the Red Bull engineers wanted to try the old floor again, after having thoroughly analysed the data from the previous race. Instead, the new nose with narrow Mercedes-style pylons remains.