Red Bull RB6

[waggles]

Well, it's official. The FIA have ruled that the RB6 front wing is completely legal! Good news for me!👍👍

Source?

 

[astrosdude91]

Source?

Yes, of course. According to GPUpdate, Newey has confirmed that the FIA have declared the flexa-wing legal.

Here is the link.

 

[Ardius]

Yes, of course. According to GPUpdate, Newey has confirmed that the FIA have declared the flexa-wing legal.

Here is the link.

Newey is referring to the checks the FIA do at every race on front loadings, which it obviously passed. (otherwise it would have been DSQ from the races).

Quite clearly the FIA don't think all is fine when they are altering the front wing checks.....

 

[astrosdude91]

Well, he does say there are no plans to change the front wing. So we'll just see if he is right or not.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Red Bull and Newey stated at the start of the year "there is no one aspect that makes our car fast, there's lots of small things".
Now think about how many "tricks" have been revealed so far, blown diffusers, flexing wings....

But the flexi-wings haven't been there from the start.

 

[Ardius]

But the flexi-wings haven't been there from the start.

So? I don't see how that affects what I said, the Red Bull is the sum of lots of small parts. If you stick the Red Bull flexing wing on the McLaren, it won't gain them a whole second. Just like bolting on a blown diffuser hasn't.

 

[Alex.]

But the flexi-wings haven't been there from the start.

Which would explain why the RBR's have gotten faster 💡

 

[niky]

Yeah, but they lost the side mirror trick... and yet still stayed faster.

So? I don't see how that affects what I said, the Red Bull is the sum of lots of small parts. If you stick the Red Bull flexing wing on the McLaren, it won't gain them a whole second. Just like bolting on a blown diffuser hasn't.

Too true. Everyone can try for flexi-wings now, but it will take a few races to make them work with the rest of the package. McLaren is in a small heap of trouble... their package works great with the F-duct, but so far, any other strategy they've tried to adopt from other teams has failed.

A more flexible wing might help them... but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

What if they give the car a softer front suspension and more front suspension travel? Basically, give it infinite side-roll stiffness, but allow a lot of droop at high loadings? This gets the wing lower to the ground the faster it goes, yet doesn't break rules regarding flexible aero. Of course, they give up some cornering performance, but the gains in downforce might be worth it.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

So?

I don't know. You gave a quote pre flexi-wing and then only gave one other trick.

 

[Seismica]

Too true. Everyone can try for flexi-wings now, but it will take a few races to make them work with the rest of the package. McLaren is in a small heap of trouble... their package works great with the F-duct, but so far, any other strategy they've tried to adopt from other teams has failed.

Various people at Mclaren have said the blown diffuser works well, but that it completely ruins the balance of the car and actually makes it worse. They know that once they get it working properly in terms of the car's balance, the car will not only be faster but it will be more stable, consistent and easier to drive. Mercedes and Ferrari were affected by the same problems, we all saw how bad Mercedes were at Valencia.

I feel the flexible front wing just does that little bit extra to balance the car. I think it's why Ferrari are now so close to Red Bull, because they have both the Blown diffuser and the flexible wing working in unison. The extra downforce on the front end balances out the extra downforce gained from the blown diffuser. That aerodynamic balance means they can use the suspension to maximise the car's performance through the corners rather than using it to counter the downforce imbalance, like I imagine Mclaren and Mercedes have been doing recently.

I can imagine Mclaren and Mercedes have it in the development pipeline and it will probably be ready for Monza or perhaps even for Spa, just incase the FIA deem it to be legal. The performance advantage (Especially combined with the blown diffuser) is too good to simply ignore it at this vital point in the season.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I think most of their speed comes from the blown diffuser. They just had it from the beginning, so it works extremely well from them.

 

[Seismica]

Oddly, Renault don't seem to have had a downforce imbalance when they introduced their blown diffuser.

 

[Matti_Dude]

It'll be interesting to see how the RB goes around Spa. There is quite a few high speed corners there, but all of that extra downforce they have will make them dead slow on the straights. McLaren will make a come back there I think because they have so much straight line speed with the f-duct and the Mercedes engine.

 

[Ardius]

I don't know. You gave a quote pre flexi-wing and then only gave one other trick.

I do not claim to know all the tricks the Red Bull employs - but the pace doesn't all come from "tricks" alone, it will also come from generally great aerodynamics. The flexi-wing is but one trick and like I said, that alone doesn't make the Red Bull faster just like the blown diffuser on its own doesn't.

 

[Alex.]

It'll be interesting to see how the RB goes around Spa. There is quite a few high speed corners there, but all of that extra downforce they have will make them dead slow on the straights. McLaren will make a come back there I think because they have so much straight line speed with the f-duct and the Mercedes engine.

Not as much as you think. The idea is to create DF without drag and RBR do this well. If anything it's the engine that will hold them back on the straights.

 

[Peter]

It'll be interesting to see how the RB goes around Spa. There is quite a few high speed corners there, but all of that extra downforce they have will make them dead slow on the straights. McLaren will make a come back there I think because they have so much straight line speed with the f-duct and the Mercedes engine.

Methinks the Red Bulls won't be great at all at Spa. Regardless of creating downforce without drag, they'll fall back on the straights cause the Renault doesn't churn out as much horses as its rivals. I'm expecting middle to bottom of Q3 from them. McLaren, and possibly Force India to be up there, with Mercedes up there as well.

 

[The Outlaw]

Methinks the Red Bulls won't be great at all at Spa. Regardless of creating downforce without drag, they'll fall back on the straights cause the Renault doesn't churn out as much horses as its rivals. I'm expecting middle to bottom of Q3 from them. McLaren, and possibly Force India to be up there, with Mercedes up there as well.

The Mercedes GP cars are rather doggish on the straights though, due to their poor DF/drag ratio and an F-duct that doesn't seem to be fully sorted out atm (and likely won't ever be due to them focusing their efforts and modest budget on next years car).

I think Ferrari and Mclaren will be favorites for this race, though the top 3rd car will be a tough call. Force India will likely be pretty strong here as you mentioned and could very well fight it out with the top teams as they did last year at Spa.

 

[Ardius]

I'm not sure Mercedes ever fully implemented an f-duct due to their unique airbox design.

 

[Matti_Dude]

Methinks the Red Bulls won't be great at all at Spa. Regardless of creating downforce without drag, they'll fall back on the straights cause the Renault doesn't churn out as much horses as its rivals. I'm expecting middle to bottom of Q3 from them. McLaren, and possibly Force India to be up there, with Mercedes up there as well.

Yeah Force India tend to run well there as well. I think McLaren will take the top spot, closely followed by Ferrari, then Sutil and the Red Bulls afterwards. But who knows, it might rain and that will really help the Red Bull.