HOW RED BULL'S FRONT
WING CHANGES HAVE
AIDED VERSTAPPEN'S
TITLE BID
Mark Hughes and illustrator Giorgio Piola
explain the impact of changes made to
Red Bull's front wing during the second
half of the season
Ever since Zandvoort, Red Bull have been paying a lot of attention to their front wing – and that seems to be at the heart of the car’s improved performances compared to the first half of the season, something which has brought Max Verstappen into championship contention.
Since returning from the summer break, Verstappen has won five times in 10 races. In the 13 races before the break, he won only twice.
Although the basic Zandvoort front wing, with its big plan area, has been retained ever since, there have been multiple variations of flap shape and flexibility control.
The wing comprises of the main plane and three flaps. The top two flaps are varied according to the layouts of the track.
For the low-drag demands of Las Vegas, the top flap had a much flatter profile and the middle flap was reprofiled to match. Only the mainplane and first flap remained the same.
In addition to that, the slot gap separators were moved to give a greater degree of flexibility to the inboard part of the wing/less flexibility to the outboard.
Varying where across its span that the wing flexes is used to help with the aerodynamic balance of the car between front and rear.
The red strip in the top image highlights how much less top flap area the Vegas wing has, while there is an accompanying different second flap profile (1) with subtly different contouring and the slot gap separators (2) are placed differently. The second image shows the Singapore evolution of the wing, with Verstappen's choice on the right, and Tsunoda's on the left featuring a smaller top flap.
Even though the Technical Directive in force since the Spanish Grand Prix in May has limited the degree of flex permitted, distributing that flexibility across the wing is still crucially important.
Moving the slot gap separators laterally across the wing helps give the required balance. More freedom to flex at the inboard end will feed the underfloor with more mass airflow, while freedom at the outboard ends will give a more powerful outwash around the front wheels and better flow to the floor edges.
Getting an adequate balance through the range of corner speeds is particularly tricky with this generation of F1 car, and the varying ways of flexing the front wing are part of trying to give a better compromise of balance between those speed ranges.
For the higher downforce demands of Qatar, a bigger top flap had returned. Although the balance was not perfect, it was enough to give Verstappen his seventh win of the season, keeping him in contention for the title as we head into the Abu Dhabi season finale.
