Red Bull RB22

[venkyhere]

Maybe the idea is to NOT go all guns blazing to keep 'out' the front wheel wake (albeit disposing some of it via the up-n-out-washing 'single bargeboard') and instead 'invite' what remains of it, (however stupid it may seem to invite turbulent dirty air) , to be 'cleaned up' by getting lost amidst a huge 'mass flow' towards the large rear coke bottle opening, which in turn is powered by the diffuser. Remember, there is no beamwing, so diffuser has to do a lot of 'heavy lifting' (or heavy suction rather), so maybe the way to go is to 'use' the front wheel wake ?

I am just shooting in the dark, but I am almost sure they found a way to 'do something with front wheel wake that others haven't thought of ' , because what we saw today can't be a 'dummy' because the team definitely needs 'real data' inorder for the testing to be useful before race1.

[Stu]

Maybe the idea is to NOT go all guns blazing to keep 'out' the front wheel wake (albeit disposing some of it via the up-n-out-washing 'single bargeboard') and instead 'invite' what remains of it, (however stupid it may seem to invite turbulent dirty air) , to be 'cleaned up' by getting lost amidst a huge 'mass flow' towards the large rear coke bottle opening, which in turn is powered by the diffuser. Remember, there is no beamwing, so diffuser has to do a lot of 'heavy lifting' (or heavy suction rather), so maybe the way to go is to 'use' the front wheel wake ?

I am just shooting in the dark, but I am almost sure they found a way to 'do something with front wheel wake that others haven't thought of ' , because what we saw today can't be a 'dummy' because the team definitely needs 'real data' inorder for the testing to be useful before race1.

Maybe ‘encouraging’ the dirty turbulence to the rear tyre to reduce the drag?

[Badger]

Looks like the cooling louvre position is now next to the headrest, that's what we were seeing earlier.

[AR3-GP]

Looks like the cooling louvre position is now next to the headrest, that's what we were seeing earlier.

It's a different bodywork configuration. This one does not have it:

[venkyhere]

Maybe the idea is to NOT go all guns blazing to keep 'out' the front wheel wake (albeit disposing some of it via the up-n-out-washing 'single bargeboard') and instead 'invite' what remains of it, (however stupid it may seem to invite turbulent dirty air) , to be 'cleaned up' by getting lost amidst a huge 'mass flow' towards the large rear coke bottle opening, which in turn is powered by the diffuser. Remember, there is no beamwing, so diffuser has to do a lot of 'heavy lifting' (or heavy suction rather), so maybe the way to go is to 'use' the front wheel wake ?

I am just shooting in the dark, but I am almost sure they found a way to 'do something with front wheel wake that others haven't thought of ' , because what we saw today can't be a 'dummy' because the team definitely needs 'real data' inorder for the testing to be useful before race1.

Maybe ‘encouraging’ the dirty turbulence to the rear tyre to reduce the drag?

possible, yeah. Aerodynamics is dark-arts/black-magic

[Badger]

It's a different bodywork configuration. This one does not have it:

https://i.postimg.cc/8CWNffY0/Screenshot-4872.png

Either way, it doesn't seem like there is an inlet by the headrest. The outlet there is just extra cooling for the sidepod.

[venkyhere]

Looks like the cooling louvre position is now next to the headrest, that's what we were seeing earlier.

https://i.postimg.cc/qMHNQnn1/image.png

It's a different bodywork configuration. This one does not have it:

Also noting that the typical 'tip vortex' generating strakes that we usually see mounted on top of the halo (just before the halo's rear submerges into the body) aren't present anymore. Is this the case for other cars as well ?

[Emag]

https://i.ibb.co/pv5MW39d/20260126-190615.jpg

Super bluff front of the sidepod region. Compared to others I imagine there is a larger stagnation pressure at the leading edge of the floor despite the sidepod not being as wide

The belief must be that this forward, bluff sidepod is enough to control the lower/mid tyre wake. The exposed sis tube wing, like previous regs, is there but without the wing mirror stay attaching to the end to reduce power of tip vortex. The vortex that forms with suction side above sis-wing will rotate with a sense that helps to drive outwash of the upper-mid tyre wake, and increase downwashing effect of SP

The floor edge curl and stacked venetian blinds generating up+outwash will be helping to manage tyre wake too. Combined with more flexibility to create and position structures shed by FW, maybe these are sufficient to make this sidepod approach work.

Overall you end up with less frontal area

Is it just me or does the Airbox look kind of big here? In a vertical direction, not horizontal like vcarb. Inlet's total area maybe 1.5x bigger than Mercedes? Which to be fair it wouldn't be crazy if it was true considering their respective sidepod sizes.

[organic]

It's a different bodywork configuration. This one does not have it:

https://i.postimg.cc/8CWNffY0/Screenshot-4872.png

Either way, it doesn't seem like there is an inlet by the headrest. The outlet there is just extra cooling for the sidepod.

They're playing with Lego again in the garage

[AR3-GP]

Is it just me or does the Airbox look kind of big here? In a vertical direction, not horizontal like vcarb. Inlet's total area maybe 1.5x bigger than Mercedes? Which to be fair it wouldn't be crazy if it was true considering their respective sidepod sizes.

Many of us suspect that the intercooler is on top of the engine, as suggested by several sketches from scarbs.

[AR3-GP]

[carisi2k]

Probably looks closer to the RB-16B than any zero pod Merc

Actually to me it looks very RB6/7 like.

[organic]

Red bull has the same bib support mercedes is running - a single strut

In this image you can also see the t-tray has the signature shape that we came to expect in pre-2022 rules

Can also see the halo inlets which are semicircular

[AR3-GP]

Sidepod inlet is swept backwards around 40-45 degrees. This was not obvious in any other shots

[TNTHead]

Dr Obbs take on the RB22

https://x.com/i/status/2015863998386782462