Will Red Bull now change the cooling system on the Formula 1 car depending on the track?

Red Bull is under pressure. The Formula 1 competition has caught up. Max Verstappen’s confident start-to-finish victories are a thing of the past. That’s why updates for the RB20 were needed. A larger package debuted in Hungary. And Max Verstappen even has another special feature.

A new front wing with four new elements, modified front lower wishbones and the rear brake cover have all been changed to make the Red Bull faster again and give the drivers more confidence. Pierre Wache, Technical Director in Milton Keynes, was unable to make a judgement between the training sessions on Friday, but was optimistic: “It will certainly be a long process to learn to understand the package. One training session is not enough to draw a conclusion. But we have learned that we are going in the right direction. There was no black flag signaling to us about the package.”

Verstappen’s Red Bull with new cooling

Max Verstappen’s car is particularly interesting. It not only has the previously mentioned parts, but also a completely new cooling concept on the sidepods and bodywork. The bulges that connected to the halo and the cooling holes that were placed between the airbox and the halo have disappeared. Instead, there are now larger cooling fins further towards the rear. This update was actually only supposed to come after the summer break, but the factory made great efforts to bring it to Hungary for at least one car. “As our competitors are getting closer and closer, it was important that we were able to bring the update earlier,” said Wache with relief.

Technical details: Red Bull
The new cooling fins on Verstappen’s car, photo: LAT Images

But the designation of the update is particularly interesting. All updates must be announced to the FIA. In their list, the new cooling arrangement is under the category ‘track-specific’. Does this mean that, conversely, the old car that Sergio Perez drives could also be used by Verstappen on other tracks?

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That’s exactly what the technical director was asked, and the answer was surprisingly open by F1 standards: “That’s a possibility that we’ll explore in FP1 and FP2. It depends on whether the need for cooling and the track characteristics drive us to change it. Then we will do it.”

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Spa next week is the complete opposite of Hungary, with high speed and usually lower temperatures. Will we see a downgrade again? The Frenchman did not want to reveal that: “With all the parts we add, we try to filter out the fastest car. We try, so that doesn’t mean we’ll manage it. But it could be a possibility on different tracks. But we don’t know yet.”

You can read what Max Verstappen expects from the update here:

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