'Red Bull finds loophole and thanks sidepods for 'extra' wind tunnel time'
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Red Bull Racing could make relatively little use of the wind tunnel and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) this season, yet the Milton Keynes-based team has managed to appear at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix with an impressive sidepod concept. Possibly the team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez took advantage of a loophole in the regulations.
Red Bull Racing finished first in the constructors' championship in 2022 and thus has the least wind tunnel time of all the teams, curbing the number of possible updates. Moreover, the Austrian formation faces a penalty of a further 10 per cent less wind tunnel time due to exceeding its budget ceiling in 2021.
Yet the world championship leader among constructors keeps coming up with updates, and about this the competition is a bit puzzled. After all, how come Red Bull came up with another major update to the sidepods in Hungary? F1TV 's Sam Collins reveals that Adrian Newey and his men have taken advantage of what might be a loophole.
Red Bull has been particularly clever
"What Red Bull have done here is quite interesting, because they've read the rule book and that's a really important thing to do. So by changing this side pod duct, what they've also changed is everything that's underneath this side pod. All of the coolers, all of the radiators, all those heat exchangers, everything related to cooling the power unit has been changed. And the regulations are really interesting on this point because when you change those parts, when you develop new radiators, you develop new ducting underneath the bodywork, that does not come out of your wind tunnel or CFD testing allocation. You've got absolute freedom," Collins explains.
"You can spend as long as you like in the wind tunnel developing the radiators, developing the ducting to the radiators, as long as it's related to cooling the power unit." So Red Bull spent a lot of 'extra' hours using the wind tunnel, although some restrictions applied.
"They're not allowed to put any force measurement, so they can't measure how much downforce that may be generating, but they can measure the flow through the side pod, they can measure the temperature, they can measure the different air pressures throughout the side pod. So they can learn a huge amount about how these new side pods will be working." That, then, is what Red Bull has done, according to Collins. "And that's what they've been doing, that's how they've been able to introduce this dramatic upgrade to the car."