F1 News

Mercedes and Red Bull apply same philosophy to aggressive front wing

19 February 2022 at 07:50
Last update 19 February 2022 at 11:39
3
  • GPblog.com

Most teams have already shown their new car to the world and even rolled out the garage to drive it. Red Bull Racing so far have only showed a livery on a show model of the 2022 car. The first clear image of the front wing now seems to have surfaced.

Red Bull Racing have also taken the car out on the asphalt. Only some rumours came out about this outing of the RB18. These included a white-painted edition and there was talk of a unique front wing. Rumours that Max Verstappen was behind the wheel also surfaced and were later confirmed. The rumours about the unique front wing now seem to be confirmed as well. A picture appeared on Twitter where we can see the right side of the front wing in full view.

Red Bull wing looks like Mercedes wing

What can be seen in the photo is that Red Bull is also using the maximum four panels allowed on the top front wing. The bottom panel is flat and parallel to the road. The second panel also appears to be fairly flat and runs slightly uphill. The top two panels, on the other hand, are very steep, making it seem as if the front wing consists of two parts; a flat bottom and a steep top. In this, the wing differs from other wings we have seen.

Red Bull further seems to have applied a similar philosophy to the wing as Mercedes. At the end of the wing, towards the endplate, the panels on the Red Bull, like those on the Mercedes, slope down and back together again. The resulting undulating motion is not seen on the Ferrari F1-75, for example (see the second photo in the Instragram photo of the F1 below). Mercedes' wing has already been described as the most aggressive design to date.

 
 
 
 
 
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Finally, what is noticeable about the RB18's front wing is the small hole left in the middle of the nose, where the front wing attaches. On the Mercedes pictures we do not see that hole, but on Ferrari it seems to be under the logo at the tip of the nose. The angle of the photo does not show it clearly and there is also a Red Bull employee in front of it, but the nose of the Red Bull looks a bit wider than the narrow nose of Mercedes. Also, the nose seems to be less tapered than Ferrari's nose.