Red Bull caused a lot of controversy on the first day of testing at Jerez. They turned up with this “camo” livery on the RB11 to obscure its hidden aero secrets that the firm had come up with over the winter. It was a disappointing season in 2014 for a team that set their sights high, with power unit issues hampering the team all through the year.
Looking at the front of the RB11 you can see that they have gone for the thumb extension on the nose tip to meet the regulations, as have Williams and Sauber. At the top of the nose you can see that the vanity panel is well blended into the nose from the top of the chassis, likewise the McLaren and Ferrari counterparts. Their front wing remains very similar to 2014. With Peter Prodromou signing off with his last Red Bull design after he left for McLaren they have the same front wing, just a change in geometry.
The S-duct is retained for 2015, with an opening inlet at the base of the nose, ahead of the front bulkhead. The air passes through exiting over the top of the chassis on the nose. This stops a flow blockage from building up over the top of the car.
Looking closely at the front there is a nice duct design. They have enlarged the front brake duct inlets so that more air can pass through and then out the wheel nut. This is called a blow front axle and is a very neat aerodynamic solution. As air passes out the wheel nut it mixes with the vortex of the trailing edge of the front wing. This then travels down the side of the car and to the rear y100 winglet and rear wing, helping aiding downforce.
Onto the front suspension which is the Pull Rod and again is very angled. This might be a small area where the firm will want to improve for aerodynamic reasons. The more level the upper and lower wishbones are the more cleaner the airflow is as it speeds up over the car.
Furthermore onto the central section of the car you can see on the leading edge that they have the “L” shaped vertical vane flanks. This collects the tyre wake and stops in from running over the bodywork. This gives the rear of the car a cleaner airflow and more downforce.
On the wing mirrors you can see tiny cameras, they are directed at the front wing endplates to measure the flex they produce under lateral load. They had a laser beam pointed onto a contact patch to measure the load. This will be gone come the first race in Australia.
The sidepods are very well packaged, giving the car a very neat coke bottle. This tells us that Renault have got to grips with its PU cooling requirements for the IC, ERS and turbocharger. Any over engineered concept will create air-separation issues, which is not what you want, it’s a slight hinder in downforce. keeping a simple coke bottle is the best solution.
Onto the rear of the RB11 and its looks very neat too. With a nice “swan neck” pylon from the foot of the engine cover to the base of the rear wing mainplane. This has connected to it the y100 winglet (monkey seat) which uses exhaust gasses to help rear downforce of the car with an up wash effect on this small rear wing concept.
The rear wing is very similar to 2014, who ran a low drag one at Jerez with only two louvres in the endplate.
This looks a great car from Red Bull. Who have shown bold design concepts on the 2015 challenger. If the Renault PU is as improved as they claimed, it should be a much more successful season than their last.
Image Courtesy of Red Bull Racing
