Red Bull RB22

[vorticism]

Approximation of the displaced area. The triangular floor extension is mostly or totally lost. If this is not simply an improvement iteration, I think this could be considered the lower-DF version of the sidepod with less outwash and reduced floor intake from the loss of the ramp area (in red/orange), with the previous (test 1) version being the higher-DF version that impinged upon the side wings more.

[venkyhere]

Now that the undercut has appeared, and the 'floor extension' gone, we are seeing the floor entry very clearly. Is this (green encircled) a 'venturi tunnel like' entry hugging the tub's wall, @vorticism ? Do all teams have it ?

[Stu]

So is nobody going to talk about how I said those sidepods looked temporary and that an undercut was coming? The new undercut sidepods even looks like they aren't permanent either and look to have a faux panel and that Red Bull are still testing things to see how different things work and correlate with there tools.

When it was first seen it raised comment (see page 26), but just in the form of “of course they did”. Not a shock at all.

[Owen.C93]

So is nobody going to talk about how I said those sidepods looked temporary and that an undercut was coming? The new undercut sidepods even looks like they aren't permanent either and look to have a faux panel and that Red Bull are still testing things to see how different things work and correlate with there tools.

We said it wasn’t a vanity panel and that was true. I don’t think anyone said the sidepods would remain the same at all times.

Teams don’t have the time to mess around with misdirection and fake panels. There’s nothing super secret about having a mild undercut that they had to hide. It was just an earlier design revision.

[Henk_v]

Could they just start with simpler, less sensitive flow structures to establish correlation and then build on from there? They need to build a transfer function from the WTscale model to real life and probably want to isolate the basline from the add on effects.

[Real PJ's Beard]

Could they just start with simpler, less sensitive flow structures to establish correlation and then build on from there? They need to build a transfer function from the WTscale model to real life and probably want to isolate the basline from the add on effects.

They absolutely can, no rules against it. Though if you have a sense your correlation is pretty good already, you can go more complex quicker. Add to that the limited testing time and teams will want to have the bulk of they flow structures correlated as early as they can. Sometimes knowing what you don't know is more important than knowing what you do know.

[organic]

https://i.ibb.co/Gv0SHVjP/RB22-new-side ... -test2.png

Now that the undercut has appeared, and the 'floor extension' gone, we are seeing the floor entry very clearly. Is this (green encircled) a 'venturi tunnel like' entry hugging the tub's wall, @vorticism ? Do all teams have it ?

Good spot...

Nicolas Carpentiers has given us this image:



Which confirms your findings. Red bull seem to have recreated the floor entry of venturi cars. I would speculate that this is only possible with the sidepod extension that Vorticism previously discussed, the underneath of which is the roof of this venturi-like entrance?

The 3d shaping of the bib area as a whole is probably the most interesting detail of the car

[AR3-GP]

It's like the bigger floor vanes from last year.

[AR3-GP]

I don't think this stuff was on the car yesterday. Red Bull did more flow viz on the left front today, so sounds like they brought floor upgrade today. They might be trying the updates in steps after the mess of the last 2 years...

[organic]

It's like the bigger floor vanes from last year.

As for where the bib channel goes, presumably along the chassis wall and into the innermost inlet

Yeah they've been adding stuff gradually. They introduced some new diffuser parts yesterday afternoon with diffuser extension winglets like Merc have

[Badger]

Is this the same floor? The vane geometry looks slightly different to me, but the camera angle is slightly different too. The new vanes look more straight to me, in the direction of travel, the old ones are more angled. Maybe just the angle.

[organic]

https://i.ibb.co/Gv0SHVjP/RB22-new-side ... -test2.png
https://i.postimg.cc/nrk6G92v/20260220-084829.jpg
Is this the same floor? The vane geometry looks slightly different to me, but the camera angle is slightly different too. The new vanes look more straight to me, in the direction of travel, the old ones are more angled. Maybe just the angle.

It's a new floor in this region.They've been bringing new floor parts progressively.

As Vanja has outlined on twitter, they've potentially designed the chassis around this specific loophole

[Badger]

https://i.ibb.co/Gv0SHVjP/RB22-new-side ... -test2.png
https://i.postimg.cc/nrk6G92v/20260220-084829.jpg
Is this the same floor? The vane geometry looks slightly different to me, but the camera angle is slightly different too. The new vanes look more straight to me, in the direction of travel, the old ones are more angled. Maybe just the angle.

It's a new floor in this region.They've been bringing new floor parts progressively.

As Vanja has outlined on twitter, they've potentially designed the chassis around this specific loophole

Do we have any good pictures of the old floor entry?

[AR3-GP]

Vanja is saying the floor inlet is fake.

They are using a venturi style floor inlet on inboard edge to feed the floor.

https://x.com/AeroTechVH/status/2024777 ... 12/photo/1

[organic]

They've also added some ridiculous spatulas on the underside of the front wing which I spotted the other day but never got a good angle of.