Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 Speculation Thread

[Wouter]

Some sentences about the RB19 from an interview with Newey on AMuS in German.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... 3-konzept/

Some sentences translated:

No team has the best solution

For the fact that a Ferrari with completely different sidepods was practically as fast as the Red Bull,
Newey has a surprising answer ready:
"That means that none of us is absolutely right and there has to be something better.
You can things like wings or sidepods never isolate . Everything only works as a package. A Ferrari sidepod
will not fit our underbody and vice versa. There is always an interaction between these elements."

"We will continue to develop our concept because we know it best. But I don't dare to say whether our way is the best.
It's quite possible that someone else will turn the corner with a better idea."

The problem with forecasts is that no one knows the destination. "None of us yet know where we will end up when developing our own concepts. Perhaps another one has much greater development potential that is still lagging behind today."
Newey also does not want to rule out that someone will find a solution that no one has on their radar at the moment.
"Think of the double diffuser. That loophole in the transition from floor to step was always there. It just wasn't discovered."

The question is how big the consequences are of the penalty for exceeding the budget cap; less wind tunnel time and less CFD time.
(Mercedes 80%, Ferrari 75% and RBR 63%)

[ME4ME]

I think the CFD deficit will hit Red Bull hard. Already this year Mercedes had a more impressive in-season development imo. I think it was quite noticable that Red Bull front-loaded their development which obviously gives you the most benefit over a season from a given investment in an upgrade.

But at least they've got that newly developed chassi or a further variant of it ready to go. Should be worth a good amount of laptime in both reduced weight as well as potentially improved balance.

Characteristally they nailed RB18. Such solid all-rounder. Not a lot of weaknesses. I think they'll try to improve upon tire-life further because there seems to be room for improvement (shown by Mercedes). Also I think they'll tailor-make the car further to Max liking so he can extract even more performance. His way seems to be the quickest way. Perez will just have to deal with it. Also the improved front tires will probably help.

[AR3-GP]

I think the CFD deficit will hit Red Bull hard. Already this year Mercedes had a more impressive in-season development imo. I think it was quite noticable that Red Bull front-loaded their development which obviously gives you the most benefit over a season from a given investment in an upgrade.

On the surface, one could say Mercedes appeared to get closer to Red Bull by the end of the season (although how much of that was just outlier tracks is difficult to judge considering that Mercedes looked very average again in the final round in Abu Dhabi).

Even within these observations, it's hard to fully interpret whether this was due to development inferiority of RB, or different objectives and management of resources.

Something that was alluded to by Craig Scarbs and Peter Windsor is that how hard these development cuts will hurt Red Bull is entirely dependent on the maturity of their concept. If the returns begin to diminish, then more wt time becomes valuable. If they are still finding gobs of performance from coarse geometry sweeps, then the reduction in time won't hurt them all that much.


Historically speaking, Red Bull has always known how to develop a leading aero package. Their only weakness was previously the Renault PU.

[AR3-GP]

Now that RB will have some mandatory extra budget, I'd like to see them move towards a more modern and compact intercooler layout. The air-air intercoolers take up too much space. Mercedes, Ferrari, and Renault have all moved to water-air intercooler configurations. There is a weight penalty, but the packaging is improved.

[Stu]

Therein lies the rub, more weight.
If it was possible to include the charge-cooler mass within the overs mass of the ICE then it would be a no-brainer; however the charge-cooler needs a water air cooler itself along with pump, hoses, header-tank and all of the other control gubbins.

[chrisc90]

I wouldn’t worry about the Mercedes development at the end of the season. The low air density played to their design at 2 tracks on a 20-odd race calendar. That advantage was reality checked again in AD.

Don’t forget that RB stopped their development pretty early on in the 2022 season whilst others were bringing upgrades to the last 2 races.

I think we will likely see the lighter weight chassis introduced for next year - I don’t recall it being used this season - so there’s a good start there. We just have to hope that with other components weight reductions we don’t have a issue with reliability.

I think we also need to look at the 23 floor edges and which cars on the grid worked better at a slightly higher rear. That together with a more simple floor edge (I think from one of F1TV techy videos) will also play a good part. I think teams who can run higher on the rear will have more benefit.

I will be honestly surprised if the other 2 teams can close up their .250-.600 a lap difference in race pace that quickly.

[jordanb]

I wouldn’t worry about the Mercedes development at the end of the season. The low air density played to their design at 2 tracks on a 20-odd race calendar. That advantage was reality checked again in AD.

There was a report somewhere that RB had to revert to use heavier components for the last many races again as the upgraded, lighter components that were introduced midseason were out of life. Due to cost reasons they couldn't manufacture lighter components again. If that is true, then the AD advantage could have been bigger with lighter components.

[AR3-GP]

I wouldn’t worry about the Mercedes development at the end of the season. The low air density played to their design at 2 tracks on a 20-odd race calendar. That advantage was reality checked again in AD.

There was a report somewhere that RB had to revert to use heavier components for the last many races again as the upgraded, lighter components that were introduced midseason were out of life. Due to cost reasons they couldn't manufacture lighter components again. If that is true, then the AD advantage could have been bigger with lighter components.

Considering the usage of heavier parts towards the end of the season, the performance in AD was frightening....

Anyway, I wouldn't read too much into this bit of nothingness ( ), but Marko says:

“I’m not too worried, though. We’re on a good track for 2023 and, with Max, we have the best driver in the field.”

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2022/12/ ... m-in-2023/

[Henk_v]

I still cant help but have a naggy feeling we'll see more wing development. To me it looks like they developed a lot on the "package" level and worked to understand and refine the floor. The RB wings have been less than spectacular.
They might have just used well predictable wing designs as to not have too much cross related data for the floor development. Once the floor and bodywork design settles, I think we might start to see some more intricate wing designs.

As they've learned this season and gathered their ideas on how to move forward, they must have had some packaging limitations in extending their concept, so I think we'll see some repackaging. Likely around cooling and or exhaust.

All reports of deferred updates and their very early season understanding of the package may well be a prelude to RB starting 23 dominant with a similar tweaked design. Something I dont look forward to. Lets hope someone stirs things up by making a big step this winter.

[AR3-GP]

It's very apparent that RB went with a very limited assortment of wings (front and rear) for budget cap reasons. I would expect higher resolution on the rear wing specifically for 2023. While one can get away with using only 3 wings ( "low", "med", "hi"), you can optimize around more tracks a bit better, with more wings.

[Stu]

It's very apparent that RB went with a very limited assortment of wings (front and rear) for budget cap reasons. I would expect higher resolution on the rear wing specifically for 2023. While one can get away with using only 3 wings ( "low", "med", "hi"), you can optimize around more tracks a bit better, with more wings.

There was some flap variation (probably a couple of different options across the med/high rear wings and also beam wing changes (low DF option only had a single plane, normally it was run in a bi-plane configuration.

[SiLo]

Will the front wing change drastically? I thought the front wing really sets up a lot of the flow structures for the rest of the car so big changes there are going to be unlikely.

[saviour stivala]

Will the front wing change drastically? I thought the front wing really sets up a lot of the flow structures for the rest of the car so big changes there are going to be unlikely.

Agree that big changes to front wing are unlikely. It being such a major contributor part of the performance of the car, as it's the first aerodynamic part of the car cutting through the air, preparing the airflow that intercept most of the rest of the car bodywork.

[AR3-GP]

https://racingnews365.com/the-developme ... e-lap-time

Wache says RB19 has much weight improvement to come. End of season RB18 was substantially too heavy.

[SiLo]

https://racingnews365.com/the-developme ... e-lap-time

Wache says RB19 has much weight improvement to come. End of season RB18 was substantially too heavy.

I think most of the teams will find big weight savings across the winter. Hopefully it helps make them a little more nimble with better weight distribution.