Red Bull presented the RB18 on Wednesday as if it were a new car, but hopes of seeing a real F1 2022 car quickly faded.
Instead of it being the Formula 1 that Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will battle this season, we simply saw a modified version of the show car that F1 itself has been showing off for months.
Team principal Christian Horner all but admitted that the ‘RB18’ revealed at the unveiling would not be the same as when it hits the track in testing.
“When we get to the first race, the RB18 won’t look much like it does today,” he said. “The evolution will be very fast as the season progresses.”
But there was no need to analyze too much what they showed us, because it was quite obvious seeing that design of the ‘RB18’ that was based on the geometry of the show car that FOM had made available to the teams to use for promotion and marketing work. .
There have been numerous versions of that show car and renders created by F1 in order to emulate this new generation of cars. Not all are identical, and feature slightly different versions of the front wing, nose and sidepods to show how the new regulations could result in different grille designs.
Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
F1 2022 car
Photo by: Formula 1
As you can see from these images above, the Red Bull shares traits, in terms of sidepod design, with one of the renders featured alongside the car that was shown at Silverstone last season.
The hexagonal roll ring, the lack of DRS on the screen, the shape of the floor and the design of the rear wing also match.
However, one difference is that the FOM render has a front wing version with a maximum of four elements as the latest rules allow, while the Red Bull version has three.
Although F1 has not used any version of three elements in the marketing of the new cars that it has been doing these months, it did have one at its headquarters, as has been seen on social networks (photo of the Tweet below).
So we have yet to see the actual RB18, which will now see even more scrutiny when the car shows up at testing in Barcelona. There remains a lot of intrigue about what the Milton Keynes team will come up with, especially around some of the key design aspects.
One area of main interest for many people about the 2022 design is the different suspension concepts, something the teams are being fairly secretive about without giving away any hints.
While there have been rumors that some of Red Bull’s rivals could switch to a pull-rod front suspension, the energy drink team could actually go the other way and switch in the opposite direction. In the back.
One possibility that teams have been exploring, and which could be included in the Red Bull, is a push-rod rear suspension to take advantage of the underfloor and diffuser design.
Red Bull Racing RB5
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Red Bull Racing RB5 rear suspension
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
That move would be in stark contrast to when Red Bull reintroduced the pull-rod design to the rear of the RB5 when F1 had another big rule change in the 2009 season.
Red Bull’s modification at the time meant that everyone else was forced to follow his idea, as it quickly became clear that it was an effective design and one that fit the existing rules.
However, that particular year caused Red Bull some problems when they realized they also needed to adopt the double diffuser that had been fitted by title favorites Brawn GP .
Comparison between the 2009 Red Bull RB5 and the Brawn BGP001
