(Motorsports news) Due to a significant advantage that drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez enjoy while the DRS is open, the Milton Keynes team has put on some astounding performances this year. The competition has been paying close attention to see if Red Bull has used a cunning tactic to give the speed boost.
Recently, Red Bull also raised some eyebrows when Lewis Hamilton questioned why the team’s DRS advantage appeared to have vanished at the Hungaroring circuit with its high downforce. However, as reported, there is a growing understanding that the ratio of drag that Red Bull manages between their rear wing and beam wing is the secret to its DRS advantage.
The team can get away with running a far smaller beam wing – sometimes even just a single element – than its competitors dare to since the squad’s RB19 is so stable at the back. As a result, when the DRS is engaged, the vehicle sheds more air resistance. This means that the rear wing contributes a larger portion of the vehicle’s overall drag in a straight line.
Red Bull joins other teams in opting for a bigger beam wing because of the performance advantages in corners at circuits where ultimate downforce is more crucial than aero efficiency (like Hungary), which is why its DRS advantage is less effective at such tracks.
Rival teams are already making efforts to develop their vehicles in the Red Bull direction, although they acknowledge that reducing the amount of downforce provided by the beam wings, which stabilize the rear of the vehicles, is challenging.
According to Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache, there is no great mystery to what his team has accomplished, and he is amazed that it has taken competitors this long to catch on to what Red Bull has been doing since the beginning of the most recent ground effect era.
Wache continued, “What is crazy is that people are still talking about that two years after we presented it. “The FIA has tested us countless times to see whether we were using any sort of gimmick, but people [still now] don’t understand why the advantage vanishes on the courses with extremely high downforce.
“Well then, that suggests they still don’t comprehend. We are quite surprised by that. Red Bull’s advantage with the DRS would probably continue to exist for a while because the team had gotten such a head start on its design, according to recent comments made by McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
If the beam wing method was crucial to the DRS gain, Stella responded when asked, “They seem to have pursued this concept for some time. As a result, I believe they may be benefiting from their extensive experience in creating this kind of configuration. I believe that over time, this has come to light. I believe that all teams are currently attempting to see what can be exploited by developing this kind of direction.”
Also read: Stella: Piastri can “show what he’s capable of” with the McLaren F1 improvements
