Sculpted sidepods and a reworked floor marked a new-look Red Bull on the final day of testing in Bahrain
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Published 12/03/2022 at 09:15 GMT
Red Bull unveiled new-look sidepods on the final day of testing in Bahrain ahead of the start of the 2022 F1 season. With sculpted sides and a revamped floor, the Red Bull team are hoping to once again lead the Mercedes which debuted a radical, and controversial, ‘zero sidepod’ design on Day 1.
Sergio Perez of Mexico driving the (11) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB18 on track during Day Three of F1 Testing at Bahrain International Circuit on March 12, 2022 in Bahrain, Bahrain.
Image credit: Getty Images
Red Bull unveiled a reworked sidepod design on the final day of testing in Bahrain, with the RB18 also sporting an updated floor design.
Early in the morning’s session the unmistakable bangs and scrapes of bodywork being fitted could be heard outside the Red Bull garage.
An hour into the session, Sergio Perez broke the cover of the garage and unveiled a sculpted sidepod design that will look to close the gap with Mercedes’ no-pod design that caused so much controversy earlier in the week.
The new sidepods feature a far less aggressive undercut and larger air intakes than previous iterations, in a design closer to the look of the Ferrari.
Sidepods have been the subject of controversy as the teams tweak and refine their designs ahead of the 2022 season opener next weekend.
Mercedes’ approach has been to almost do away with the sidepods completely, instead relying on blisters and bumps to meet the regulations. The Mercedes W13 looked radically different to the rest of the pack.
With the reintroduction of ‘ground effect’ - using the flow of air under the car to suck it to the tarmac - the Mercedes is thought to be less reliant on air flowing over the car to generate downforce.
Paired with the bigger, 18-inch wheels, it signals a departure from the look of the cars over the last few years as the teams started with a blank slate for 2022.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner seemed to question the legality of the design on the first day of testing, but later conceded that the controversial sidepod design ‘looks like it complies with regulations’.
“Whether we think it’s legal or not, yes, it looks like it ticks all the boxes,” he said.
His team are also running with a revamped floor that sees substantial changes to the back of the car.
Perez pushed things from the off, setting the pace on his first quick lap out of the pits with a 1:34.7.
Red Bull are aiming to find the true pace of their car, aiming for peak performance rather than the longer race simulating runs where their focus has been earlier in the week.
At the end of the second day of running in Bahrain, Red Bull’s head of race engineering Guillaume Rocquelin stated the team had been “competitive without even trying”.
“It was more of a stop-start day today [Friday], mostly by design,” he said. “We had a good continuous run yesterday [Thursday], so today was more about exploring and testing different things.
“We spent more time in the garage making changes to the car and also taking more risks. We learned a lot and gathered a lot of information.
“I’m quite happy with what we found out, we are progressing in different directions and it’s all very positive. We were reasonably competitive at the end without even trying.”
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen will take over from Perez in the second and final session to round out Red Bull’s pre-season test.
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