© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Motorsport reports that Red Bull RB20’s sidepods are set to get even more similar to Mercedes’ failed ‘zero sidepod’ design as the 2024 season progresses.
When Red Bull revealed its 2024 car, a lot of observers were very surprised, because the car featured some of the concepts that Mercedes had previously used and ultimately decided to abandon.
For example, Red Bull decided to included the full-length engine gulleys, similar to the ones that Mercedes had used in 2023.
Red Bull also decided to include slimmer sidepods, somewhat reminiscent of Mercedes’ controversial ‘zero sidepod’, which was introduced at the beginning of 2022, and then abandoned during the 2023 season.
So, while other teams have very much converged on Red Bull’s old designs, the Austrian team now seems to be ‘copying’ what are thought to be ‘failed’ designs of its opposition.
Motorsport.com now reports that as Formula 1 season moves to Japan in early April, “where temperatures will drop and cooling will be less marginal, the RB20 will be upgraded to a design reminiscent of the Mercedes size-zero sidepod”.
“This was a concept that Mercedes struggled to unlock throughout 2022 and 2023,” the report continued.
“Mercedes’ theory was that by shrinking the bodywork to increase the surface area of the prepotent floor for the new ground effect era, greater downforce could be achieved.
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“However, while these strong numbers were simulated in the wind tunnel with perfect control conditions, the car was moved outside of its narrow operating window by the bumps in the surface at real-world circuits.
“Mercedes eventually abandoned that layout for the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix, where the team shifted to more conventional downwash sidepods, as pioneered most notably by Red Bull.
“Red Bull should be able to facilitate its own move to a so-called ‘zeropod’ as the launch-spec RB20 appears to have more compact vertical sidepod radiator inlets to allow for tighter bodywork.
“The team can make further use of a trick it deployed in 2023 to partly offset the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions which limit wind tunnel runs and CFD simulations – with Red Bull the most affected last year due to its lead in the constructors’ championship in addition to a further 10% cut as punishment for exceeding the 2021 cost cap.
“The Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions allow exceptions for ‘wind tunnel testing solely for the development of power unit heat exchangers that reject heat to air, or the running of the power unit from a boundary commencing at the power unit air intake ducts’.
“As per last season, and again with a shift to Mercedes-style zero-pods, Red Bull has placed an emphasis on upgrades that lean towards cooling.
“The repackaging of the internal components falls outside of the ATR to then enable the team to spend less of its allowance refining the external bodywork,” the report concluded.
