The battle for sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship is tight between three teams — Alpine (sixth), Haas (seventh) and RB (eighth). With only five points separating them with three race weekends remaining, including this week’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, all three teams are still very much in the hunt to finish sixth.
Red Bull understands that there is an additional prize money of around $20 million at stake for their sister team RB. So, they decided to allow the Faenza-based outfit to take some of its parts in Las Vegas. The Race reported that RB has now switched to the 2024 specification Red Bull rear suspension.
Although the FIA have strict rules on what kind of information and resources can be transferred from one team to another, the report adds that Red Bull were able to give RB the 2024 specification as no team has to manufacture the suspension components themselves. Thanks to this change, RB expect to find both a mechanical and an aerodynamic gain.
RB has taken on a substantial element of Red Bull’s 2024 #F1 car design that it wasn’t previously using:
➡️ https://t.co/qokMsiPzJRhttps://t.co/qokMsiPzJR
— The Race (@wearetherace) November 22, 2024
Prior to this boost from Red Bull, RB were using the 2023 specification Red Bull rear suspension. It remains to be seen how much pace can RB gain thanks to this gift from Red Bull.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit will expect that it is worth giving their sister team this boost as finishing sixth in the Constructors Championship as opposed to eighth can help them earn $20 million more — which could be a huge financial boost for the Faenza outfit.
RB have had a mixed weekend so far in Las Vegas
Yuki Tsunoda had a brilliant qualifying session in Las Vegas for RB as he clocked in the seventh fastest time and was quicker than both the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. But on the other hand, Liam Lawson not only failed to make it to Q3 but he was the slowest of the runners in Q2 and will line up down in 15th on the grid.
Such a result does not bode well for RB’s hope to finish sixth in the Constructors Championship as Alpine delivered a much better performance during the qualifying session. Pierre Gasly qualified a fantastic third while Esteban Ocon will line up 11th on the grid.
What makes things worse for RB is that both Haas drivers will also have a better opportunity to score points after Nico Hulkenberg qualified P9 and Kevin Magnussen registered the 12th fastest time. So, if RB aren’t able to score enough points to finish sixth in the Championship, then Red Bull’s gamble to give them their 2024 suspension won’t pay off.
