Red Bull RB21 Speculation Thread

[lio007]

This is going to be the first car since a very long time with more or less no input from Adrian Newey.

The technical team now has to prove they learned their lessons from the RB20 and take the necessary corrections for the RB21.

Areas of development:
# low DF rear wing
# propably extreme, on the edge aero-elasticity

[lio007]

BTW, crashtest seem to be passed:

BREAKING| Red Bull RB21 passes crash test: A pivotal shift

— Red Bull Racing’s RB21 chassis has successfully passed the mandatory FIA crash tests, a critical milestone for any Formula 1 car ahead of its competitive debut. The team completed this step well ahead of schedule, signaling their intent to be fully prepared for the 2025 season.

— This marks a significant shift for Red Bull, as the RB21 is the first car developed without Adrian Newey’s direct involvement after his departure to Aston Martin. Newey’s absence adds pressure on the technical team to maintain Red Bull’s competitive edge.

— The RB21 is expected to introduce notable aerodynamic changes, moving away from the design philosophy of the RB20. The 2024 car showed diminishing returns in the second half of the season, even as Max Verstappen’s extraordinary talent secured his fourth championship.

— Team principal Christian Horner revealed that the car’s development timeline has been accelerated. The RB21 will be unveiled in January, earlier than Red Bull’s traditional late-February presentations. This approach aims to maximize track testing opportunities and provide early data for refinements before the Bahrain pre-season tests.

— Passing the crash tests ahead of schedule allows Red Bull to focus on understanding the car’s on-track behavior. Early use of filming days and test sessions will help verify the RB21’s correlation between virtual simulations and real-world performance.

— The decision to fast-track the car’s launch underscores Red Bull’s acknowledgment of heightened competition from Ferrari and McLaren, who both ended 2024 with strong momentum. Horner emphasized the need for the team to find “certainties” in their technical decisions, particularly in the absence of Newey’s expertise.

— With Red Bull’s dominance challenged and regulatory continuity in place, the RB21’s success on track will be critical in maintaining the team’s stature as a top contender. The car’s early debut reflects a proactive strategy to stay ahead of rivals as the team transitions into a post-Newey era.

[Vanja #66]

I made a review of the 3 cars before and what RB need to solve with RB21 to get back on top



There are inks to individual threads for major aero components too on RB cars. As for RB21, these are 5 major topics in my view

massive improvement of suspension system, with the biggest accent on reducing front suspension stiffness without losing high-speed stability and performance
further improvements on the floor in order to reduce low- and medium-speed performance gap to the front, as well as getting back to being the class-leading design in terms of stability and driveability
find a different innovative sidepod development direction to open up a new path for the final season of this regulation cycle - maybe even take some inspiration from McLaren?
increase the front wing load in low-speed section and utilise the flap-flexibility at leas as much as McLaren and Mercedes
work closely with Honda to get back on top of reliability issues that cost them the win at Spa this year

[Paa]

Interesting shift in philosophy (early crash-test and filming days), suggesting that they are still not confident with their simulations.

I'm really curious about the tone of their first impressions after the on track runs.
Getting good correlation would project a strong year, real remedy for Waché.
But being on the bad side would lead to hit or miss season with lots of trial and error suffering. Even Horner's position could seriously weaken after a year like that.

[f1316]

I made a review of the 3 cars before and what RB need to solve with RB21 to get back on top



There are inks to individual threads for major aero components too on RB cars. As for RB21, these are 5 major topics in my view

massive improvement of suspension system, with the biggest accent on reducing front suspension stiffness without losing high-speed stability and performance
further improvements on the floor in order to reduce low- and medium-speed performance gap to the front, as well as getting back to being the class-leading design in terms of stability and driveability
find a different innovative sidepod development direction to open up a new path for the final season of this regulation cycle - maybe even take some inspiration from McLaren?
increase the front wing load in low-speed section and utilise the flap-flexibility at leas as much as McLaren and Mercedes
work closely with Honda to get back on top of reliability issues that cost them the win at Spa this year

Thanks for this, as ever.

Regarding suspension, much was initially made (eg in The Race) of Red Bull’s anti-dive/anti-squat suspension - almost heralded as the silver bullet for their success. While this was clearly always over exaggerated, I’m curious about your suggestion that they need “massive improvement on the suspension system” - do you think this is a question of others simply pushing the needle and surpassing RB, or was the RB suspension never really all it was cracked up to be? Or indeed something else (eg that the 2023 suspension was good and they took a wrong turn)?