The Red Bull RB18 is the benchmark single-seater in Formula 1 in this first half of the season: of nine Grand Prix contested, it has won seven. Max Verstappen, the current world leader, has won six races, and his teammate, Sergio Pérez, won the Monaco Grand Prix.
The solutions that the Austrian team is adopting at this start of the new regulatory era are leading the teams towards technical convergence. Adrian Newey ‘s innovations seem to be setting the standard, and almost becoming an obligation for all other designers to follow.
The RB18 has many distinctive features, because the design of the first car to return to ground effect is very sophisticated. Red Bull, we discovered last week in Canada, has collaborated with Brembo to reduce overheating of the wheels in corners, caused by carbon tires that must remain closed.
At Red Bull they have not only modified their brake calipers and the cover, but they are also trying to reintroduce the aerodynamic flows towards the interior of said covers. A small reservoir with liquid inside the right sidepod caught the eye and its function has finally been clarified.
The brake calipers of the RB18 with el tratamiento anticalórico
The technicians of the world champion team applied an anti-heat treatment , recognizable by the darker color that characterizes it, on the aluminum calipers and changed the disc cover, which was formerly made of metal, for a composite one filled with insulating material.
Las pinzas del RB18 sin el tratamiento anticalórico
The intent is to reduce temperatures in an area of the car that has shown to be a weak point of overheating during the season, but there is also a clear desire to give value to these flows of fresh air with perhaps an aerodynamic function, which the FIA hoped to have suppressed with the adoption of rim covers.
The deposit of liquid frenos de los dos sistemas de Red Bull, separados
Red Bull has also worked on the braking system alone, and it is that, in the RB18, a rectangular tray protrudes from the front part of the chassis that contains, in a single container, the oil that divides the two systems (front and rear). ). The casing is stiffer and lighter than the usual two canisters we were used to.
Details of the pequeño depósito that feeds the brake by wire
But this wasn’t the only liquid container that caught the eye on the RB18. Inside the right pontoon a cylinder could be seen that aroused some curiosity. It is located in an area that is well protected, a little behind the upper intrusion cone.
The mystery has finally been cleared up about this new element. It is the hydraulic fluid reservoir that feeds the brake by wire , that is, the electronic braking control. Red Bull has developed its own system for this and continues to evolve it successfully.
