The best Red bull car so far

[Maniés]

After a year’s delay due to COVID-19, the massive changes originally planned for 2021 make their debut in 2022. Tight financial regulations will constrain spending and revised sporting regulations will reshape race weekends. However, it's in the technical regulations that the biggest changes are occurring, as F1 ushers in a new generation of cars designed for closer racing and more action.

 

This car counts with 14 wins for the Red bull team, and it's equipped with a direct injection 1.6L V6 turbocharged engine. Weighing just 150kg this insane machine can produce up to 900HP and has a max of 15,000 RPM.

In this new generation there is 5 key changes that changed the performance of the car like:

Rear Wing

The chief goal is to reduce the wake of dirty air behind the car. The first step towards this is to get rid of rear wing end plates. These are great for generating downforce, but also for generating dirty air that disrupts the stability of a following car. The new rear wing’s curved shape not only removes endplates, but its curved shape also creates an airflow structure that collects wake from the rear wheels and funnels it into the flow coming up from the rear diffuser, helping to fire the lot high into the air, causing less instability for a following car.

Underbody and Diffuser

The biggest change with this new generation of cars lies in how they generate downforce. Designed to reduce the wake of ‘dirty’ air that hampers following cars, 2022 F1 cars zero in on the floor as the source of downforce and in effect the sport has brought back ground effect, last seen on cars in 1982. Out go the flat floors that were used for decades and in come two long tunnels that channel airflow under the car and back to the rear diffuser. The raked diffuser will fire dirty air higher than with previous cars so the wake’s energy will dissipate over a longer time before impacting a following car.

Wheel Covers and Winglets

F1 has chosen to implement wheel covers that physically prevent air being channelled through the wheels. The new rim covers are tightly defined however, so teams won’t get to play with the design to channel that turbulent air. The new cars also get a small winglet over the new 18” tyres this season. These are designed to help control the wake coming off the front tyres and direct it away from the rear wing.

18” Tyres

In 2022 the size increases to 18" inches. Featuring new profiles, compounds and construction, the new rubber has been designed to have a wider working range than the 13” tyres and as a result, overheating is limited and degradation is reduced, which in theory should allow drivers to race closer for longer. The new lower profile should also reduce sidewall deflection changes and the wake effect that occurs as a result, again to the benefit of close racing. 

Front Wing

The front wing was routinely simplified in the final years of the last generation of cars, but for 2022 it has been totally reimagined. A four-element wing is attached directly to the nose and features a very simple endplate. The idea is that with the floor generating the bulk of downforce, the front wing doesn’t have to work as hard and the simplified version will also be less sensitive to the turbulent wake from a car in front.