RB introduced a new nose and front wing assembly at the last race of the season but, while the team did use the latest design, briefly during practice on Friday, the team quickly reverted to its regular specification for the rest of the weekend.
The car ran with a large Kiel probe rake attached behind the front wheels, with both front wing and nose designs on the car during that session in order to capture data that could be assessed to see how the different specifications altered the airflow’s behaviour.
The changes made are fairly significant, with numerous design features altered as the team look to improve how the wing and car perform over a range of conditions, with more balance as a key ingredient in that recipe.
In order to achieve some of the changes to the front wing, it has also required the team to alter some of the features of the nose, with a redesigned tip section now present on the VCARB01.
The most obvious change due to this is a reorganization of the inboard flap section, as there’s more space where the flaps connect to the side of the nose.
However, there are also some geometrical changes here as a result of the mainplane’s shape and camber being altered too, with the leading edge of the central section of the mainplane no longer thrust upward.

RB F1 Team VCARB 01 front wing comparison
Photo by: Giorgio Piola

The span-wise distribution of the flaps has also been altered, with the second element now encroaching into the space previously occupied by the mainplane, although the mainplane’s depth has been retained at the outermost section, with the second flap cut back more significantly here.
This relates to how the elements are connected to the endplate, with the mainplane taking up a much larger percentage of the juncture than the three flaps that follow.
Those three rearward flaps are now what we consider to be ‘semi-detached’, as they don’t follow the same junction geometry and are instead skewed to invoke a different outwash effect than was previously the case.
The rearmost flap section is now much more tightly wound than its predecessor at the juncture while being more skewed from the centreline too, which will magnify the outwash effect the team is looking for.
Interestingly, these modifications to the flaps have led to the team removing the canards that had previously been hung from the endplate, above the elements, with the elements themselves now fully responsible for defining the airflow’s passage.
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The endplate has also been redefined, as the designers have shifted from the squared jawline approach to a much more rounded solution across the leading and upper edge. The twisted profile of the endplate has also been altered, with a diagonally skewed surface favoured over the flatter design of its predecessor.
This has also resulted in a rethink when it comes to the diveplane, as it now has an S-shaped profile, rather than the most simplistic semi-circular variant preferred previously.
Meanwhile, on the inside of the endplate, the infra-red camera and pod have been moved from the upper, forwardmost position to one much further back and lower than before.

In this article

Matt Somerfield

Formula 1

Racing Bulls

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