Red Bull RB18 makes public debut in Barcelona test

On the first day of pre-season testing in Barcelona, Red Bull showed the public the new RB18 for 2022 for the first time after they earlier showed only new livery on the demonstration car at their season launch.

Red Bull was the only car we didn’t see before the start of pre-season testing, and the new RB18 did not disappoint, especially with aggressively designed sidepods and small and highly positioned side intakes whose lower edge protruded significantly towards the front end.

Earlier, Red Bull did the first shakedown test at Silverstone, the so-called film day during which a maximum of 100 km is allowed, but the test was held behind closed doors to hide his car from prying eyes for as long as possible.

The car has significantly big undercut in the lower part of the sidepods, which creates a large channel for air flow to the rear end, and the nose is attached to the second lowest element, as in most cars, and has a small hole in the middle to cool the driver.

Also interesting is the detail in front of the entrance to the Venturi tunnels – teams are allowed to use four vertical strakes, including the outer edge barrier, but Red Bull took the outer strakes out of the tunnel and positioned them to the edge and used the maximum height to compensate the role of numerous air deflectors that were there on the previous generation of cars.

Red Bull, like McLaren, decided to switch to pull rod front and push rod rear suspension, only two teams to do that, as they found out that those solutions provide them more aerodynamic potential within new set of regulations.

Verstappen will compete with the new RB18 with number one after deciding to use it as the 2021 world champion, which is the first time we will see number one since 2014 when Vettel used it as the 2013 champion.