Although in recent years Ferrari was the one who had been forced to copy Red Bull and their innovative ideas, this year for the first time we saw that Red Bull copied ideas from the innovative SF70H with which Ferrari finally demonstrated engineering courage.
Since launching the new SF70H, Ferrari has attracted attention with a unique sidepod solution that we have not yet seen on a Formula One car and the entire aerodynamic package in this area has been optimized to get the most out of such an aerodynamic favorable solution.
Thanks to the very high set and wide side intakes that allow more air to flow around and bellow them, especially in the lower part, Ferrari has achieved better airflow towards the rear, crucial for aerodynamic efficiency.
The lateral deflectors ahead of the sidepod have multiple aerodynamic functions are also unique because we only saw them on the Ferrari SF70H. They accept turbulent airflow from the rotating front wheels, direct it, re-shape it and send it to the rest of the car, which helps optimise the airflow around the sidepod.
The Red Bull obviously studied well the Ferrari’s solution and decided to give them a chance in the wind tunnel where they showed encouraging results so they decided to try them on the track. As usual, new parts are tested on free training sessions on Fridays when teams paint new parts and track the airflow over them to confirm the results from the wind tunnel.
Since Red Bull has decided to use the new parts for the weekend, it is obvious that they have shown satisfactory results.
Although Red Bull has conceptually copied Ferrari, its own signature has been added to its solution, so the deflectors have slits at the leading vertical edge.
Also, a few races ago Red Bull have added a rounded horizontal element (purple) to the bottom of this area that has also been first seen on Ferrari since the pre-season testing.
Red Bull has very cleverly embedded new elements into the existing package, including the main bargeboards in this area (white) using the maximum permissible height and attached to the horizontal, aerodynamic neutral wings (green) that are already in use for several races.
Below the ‘Rauch’ logo there are several horizontal slots (yellow) that create vortices on the edge of the floor that work with the rest of the aerodynamic package and Red Bull continues to experiment with slots in the floor as they had a long longitudinal slit (turquoise).
