F1 expert admits he’s been one aspect of Red Bull’s 2024 car has ‘properly thrown’ him
F1 expert admits it’s an aspect of the 2024 Red Bull car that was ‘obviously upsetting’
F1 technical expert Gary Anderson has admitted that there were aspects of Red Bull Racing’s 2024 car that were very confusing.
Gary Anderson, who has worked as lead designer for Tyrrell, McLaren and Jordan, has evaluated each team’s new cars ahead of the upcoming F1 season. Anderson suggested on The Race podcast that he was embarrassed by what Red Bull had done with the RB20.
Anderson was surprised by something he saw on the Red Bull 2024 car
F1’s first season may be over, but many questions remain unanswered about the cars that will take to the Bahrain track on Wednesday. The team was very smart about the footage they released, and now that journalists and more importantly cameras had access to it, they want to protect their latest innovations until the last moment.
Williams didn’t even show off the new car at the launch, just the new livery. Given the dominance of the 2023 season, all eyes will be on Red Bull’s trip to Bahrain.
This would have been easy for Adrian Newey and others. We need to continue what we did well last year, but we also know that our rivals cannot sit idly by.
So they took some parts and went in a new direction. And Gary Anderson has noticed a part in his 2024 Red Bull car that raises some questions. It’s not a car floor and it’s certainly not real.
In fact, this part of the machine surprised even Damon Hill when he saw their plan. Introducing the Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images for Red Bull Racing
Red Bull’s turnaround would have been easier if it had stuck to 2023.
Analyzing Red Bull’s latest menu, Anderson said: “We retreat a little bit more toward the entrance to the opposite board, but that’s one of the parts that surprised me a little bit.”
“I think there are two out of three reasons for this. This is one of those deals where I spent the last year trying to lift the top and bottom of the radiator intake and open up the undercuts in the side panels.
“And since the top edge of the side compartment, the top itself, is flush with the top of the chassis, we’ve probably reached a point where we can’t lift it any further. Obviously we need some sort of entry hole in the chassis.” It’s a place. “They mounted it as far back as possible, which meant the bottom edge of the radiator air intake was probably 50 millimeters lower relative to the top of the chassis.
“And by doing what they’re doing now, they can lift it up and use only the top surface, so the undercut in the side supports is much larger. It’s deeper, I guess you could call it that.
“So the mass flow rate through that sculpted area has increased.”
Red Bull’s side suspension could become a hot topic by 2024 if Mercedes finds a solution that they haven’t been able to find with a similar idea, and experts like Anderson say it could be a hot topic in the coming years. Minor changes will be studied. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are not afraid to share their opinion when they feel the team is heading in the wrong direction, despite their excellent results over the years.
However, they could easily undo these changes and bring it back to the 2023 car, which will almost certainly still remain one of the fastest cars on the track.
