Red Bull can take advantage of F1’s new tyre rules because it can make better use of softer compounds, according to Adrian Newey.
Teams are being given greater freedom to decide which tyres they can use at each race and a new ultra-soft compound will be used at some events. Red Bull’s chief technical officer believes this will play into their hands.
“We are quite kind on the tyres,” said Newey, “we suffer less from degradation than our rivals so it’s an extra area that hopefully we can use the performance of the car to benefit from.”
Red Bull’s 2016 season preparation were affected by the long-running dispute over which engine manufacturer would supply it. “Ultimately the decision was to stick with the same power unit we had last year,” said Newey, “which did help to catch time back up because we didn’t have a familiarisation period with a new power unit and the installation requirements that would have caused or challenged, etc…”
“We did what we could in terms of the packaging of the car without knowing the power unit but ultimately it led to a very compressed design cycle. I think the guys, the drawing office in particular, did a fantastic job in turning that around and then manufacturing, reacting to a very short lead time.”
Red Bull revealed a new livery for its 2016 car on Wednesday and the RB12 will appear for the first time in testing on Monday, to be driven by Daniel Ricciardo.
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Boomerang
20th February 2016, 14:24
Guys, just don’t mess up aero under yaw and you’ll be fine. Remember RB11 ;-)
Texasisbiggerthanfrance (@texasisbiggerthanfrance)
20th February 2016, 15:42
How do the Red Bulls suffer less degradation ? I’ve never understood what makes every car different so that degradation varies. At the end of the day they’re all four wheeled with more or less the same weights. I guess it must be the camber or the brake bias ?
pastaman (@)
20th February 2016, 15:54
If your car has more downforce and/or forward traction, the tires will need to do less work. Also, if you are able to get to and maintain the optimal tire operating temperature, it will degrade less quickly. This is again usually down to aero.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
20th February 2016, 16:02
Well, that is until car turns, then RBR tends to keep their downforce under various pitch and yaw configurations.
Then they can use softer springs, those again help tires hold the road better.
So in simple terms, car that keeps the slips smaller, more controled, where front and rear tires work toggether not against eachother… Has significantly better wear and more overall control.
RBR are masters of usable downforce.
HK (@me4me)
20th February 2016, 16:26
Full interview with Red Bull senior technical staff: http://www.redbullracing.com/video/watch-inside-line
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
20th February 2016, 19:47
Ferrari are quite good in that aspect too. Besides James Allison is a master in making cars gentle on the tyres and Kimi (alongside Fernando) is on of the best drivers on the grid in the tyre management department.
Alex Limpkin (@nuggy1980)
20th February 2016, 22:08
Yes, Kimi is great with the tyres. His Doughnuts are awesome.
AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
21st February 2016, 9:47
That’s good news for Ric. He showed great tyres management skills in RB10.