Even though the Red Bull team have arguably already produced one of the greatest cars of all time in F1, they are still keen on extending their dominance further. Ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the Milton Keynes outfit revealed that they are keen on bringing some upgrades. Since they already have such a quick car, this latest update could just be something that will help them establish their authority even further and eliminate any chance of their rivals getting a race win anytime soon.
Considering that Red Bull have been one of the latest teams that have brought in upgrades, it just shows how dominant the RB19 has been this year. This is because even though their rivals have brought in upgrades at prior races, they have come nowhere close to a race win.
One of the potential reasons why Red Bull may be getting in their updates so late in the season is their cost-cap penalty. Since the FIA had deemed the Milton Keynes outfit guilty of having breached the cost cap during the 2021 season, they had to reduce their wind tunnel time by 10 percent. And now with Red Bull finally having brought in their upgrades, here is a brief and simple look at it.
What upgrades has Red Bull brought to the Hungarian GP?
According to The Race‘s technical expert, Gary Anderson, Red Bull will bring their biggest upgrade of the season this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix. This upgrade of a slimmer sidepod will likely help the team to improve the downforce in the car, which would allow them to even find more pace.
The report adds that the Red Bull team have to be selective in what steps they take to unlock more performance this year because of their cost cap penalty. Since this penalty has given the team 10 percent less time to use their wind tunnel, they have not been able to make many changes to the aerodynamics of the car.
Despite the same, F1 TV’s technical analyst Sam Collins believes that Red Bull have found a way to improve the performance of the car by approximately two-tenths. Collins explained how the team has cleverly found a way to bring upgrades to their car by improving those areas where they are not affected by the cost-cap penalty.
As quoted by f1maximaal.nl, Collins explained, “I think they’ve been very smart because redesigning the radiators doesn’t come out of the wind tunnel allocation. So they actually grabbed a bit of a free upgrade. I think that upgrade will be worth more than two-tenths later in the season“.
Considering Collins’ remarks, this upgrade certainly does not bode well for Red Bull’s rivals, who were anyways struggling to match the pace of the Milton Keynes outfit. Now, with the team having already won all 10 races of the season so far, it will be interesting to see if they can win their eleventh consecutive race this weekend or not in Hungary.
What advantage will Perez and Verstappen get because of the upgrades?
According to a report put out by German publication AMuS, Red Bull are planning to bring an upgrade that will help Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez improve their pace by 0.2 seconds per lap. If their upgrades produce the desired results, it is fair to say that it seems unlikely that any team will stop them from winning another race this weekend, barring some major luck going their way.
And hence, considering that Red Bull are seemingly bringing a major upgrade this weekend, it seems that Verstappen was not joking when he said that the team is looking to improve their pace in almost all areas of the track.
When asked about the same following the conclusion of the British GP, he said (as quoted by crash.net), “Drag, low speed, medium speed, high speed, DRS effect, tire wear…all of these areas. That’s what we’re working on. I’m not kidding“. And with the rules remaining relatively stable for also next year, Red Bull could easily also carry on their domination into the next season using their latest upgrade.
