Red Bull RB20

[Cs98]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGPNy-7X0AA ... =4096x4096
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGZIE6DXEAA ... me=900x900

it doesn't look the same inlet

Indeed. Something stinks.

[vorticism]

I'll still wager they're letterbox, but the vertical inlet concept may have one advantage: easier adaptation of inlet size, track to track, similar to how their louvers last year were simple & serial and easy/cheap to alter per event.

Aside: motion to call it brim-pod.

[dren]

There are 2 options here;

-Team red Bull is rolling on the ground laughing because they purposely leaked pictures of a bullshit car the internet can dissect.

-Team red Bull is rolling on the ground laughing because they will kick MB ass in a '22 MB, while MB is driving a '24 RB..

Any way you slice it they are having fun

#2 would be epicly hilarious.

[venkyhere]

Is this 'brightened pic' with a vertical cooling intake, a real image or an edit-joke by someone ?

No there seems to be a vertical dark slit when you brighten the picture

Pardon my ignorance, but it doesn't make sense to me, how this is going to route the boundary layer to go and hit the radiators inside the sidepod, without suffering serious losses. If it is going to be 'almost a slit' it has to be a horizontal letterbox under the overbite. Shifting the entry by 90 (especially with a massive thin-profile horizontal plane-wing forming the overbite) to deliver sufficient cooling AND a clean undercut flow, isn't too clever.


...

...
...OR ...
is it ?
Even if it's an S-duct entry to energize flow along a different axis, it looks too MASSIVE for that purpose, the disturbance to the undercut would be too costly a tradeoff, I feel.

[AR3-GP]

>It was cold during shake down
>They knew it was going to be cold during shake down
>They blocked off the inlets with sidepod fronts they'd never use later and ran the car using only centerline cooling
>It's a testing troll

Okay maybe not and I'll still wager they're letterbox, but the vertical inlet concept may have one advantage: easier adaptation of inlet size, track to track, similar to how their louvers last year were simple & serial and easy/cheap to alter per event.

I have never seen a team block off a radiator inlet completely. Isn't it possible there is both an s-duct and a horizontal inlet?


What is baffling to me is Adrian Newey's fear of having been conservative?

[dren]

The top of the sidepod front extension looks more like a separate wing. Wonder if these sidepods will come off?

[AMG.Tzan]

https://preview.redd.it/9526zbzntric1.p ... 79c3b893fb
https://preview.redd.it/a4vcr1dqtric1.p ... a7b1929a09


Floor and sidepod area have been darkened...

Wow

Nose, sidepod inlets and engine cover bulges same as Mercedes last year!

Probably Newey is trying to ridicule Mercedes by dominating with their own concept…

This is by no means Mercedes’ zeropod concept.

Who said it’s zero pods??

I’m talking about the B spec W14 with overbite sidepods

[vorticism]

I have never seen a team block off a radiator inlet completely. Isn't it possible there is both an s-duct and a horizontal inlet?

What is baffling to me is Adrian Newey's fear of having been conservative?

Was just joking. Too off topic so I deleted it. Either Newey was throwing chaff or they had other more different concepts they were evaluating, although that seems a little unlikely to me considering the bodywork regs are so restrictive now. I'm not seeing the value of an S-duct. I have my doubts about how useful the concept is. You want outwash maxxing so why redirect air from that area.

[FNTC]

The top of the sidepod front extension looks more like a separate wing. Wonder if these sidepods will come off?

Something is definitely going on here. Either the whole vertical inlet is a decoy or maybe they show up at testing or the first race with zeropods.

[organic]

I think testing will have an updated sidepod. Let's see.

[AR3-GP]

The top of the sidepod front extension looks more like a separate wing. Wonder if these sidepods will come off?

Something is definitely going on here. Either the whole vertical inlet is a decoy or maybe they show up at testing or the first race with zeropods.

With the little windtunnel time that they have, they would not have spent any of it building decoys.

[Henk_v]

Well, thats the charm of decoys. They are fantasy and hence do not take up any windtunnel time. The car probably only has one sidepod...

[FNTC]

The top of the sidepod front extension looks more like a separate wing. Wonder if these sidepods will come off?

Something is definitely going on here. Either the whole vertical inlet is a decoy or maybe they show up at testing or the first race with zeropods.

With the little windtunnel time that they have, they would not have spent any of it building decoys.

Would be pretty cheap to slap on a vertical piece of carbon for those blurry studio shots if the actual inlet is letterbox shaped below that apparent wing on top of the sidepod. But who knows whats going on here.

[SSScoffee]

Maybe my mind is imagining things at this point but that looks like a vertical inlet. For the final version it wouldn't make much sense running a vertical inlet then showing up in Bahrain with a horizontal. The Mercedes boys must be feeling dizzy, maybe their concept was not so bad after all

[LM10]

Wow

Nose, sidepod inlets and engine cover bulges same as Mercedes last year!

Probably Newey is trying to ridicule Mercedes by dominating with their own concept…

This is by no means Mercedes’ zeropod concept.

Who said it’s zero pods??

I’m talking about the B spec W14 with overbite sidepods

If any, the RB20 we're seeing on the low quality pictures looks more like the launch spec W14 with an upper lip and a vertical inlet - of course if it's true that the RB20 actually has vertical inlets.