Why the Red Bull wing was probably the wrong choice

After qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, where its drivers could do no better than seventh and eighth, half a second behind the car in front, Red Bull is incredulous. The balance problems seem particularly thorny on the Monza track, and for the moment partly insoluble, but the team is aware of one thing: it has taken the wrong direction with the level of aerodynamic downforce of its wings.

The design of the rear wing brought by the Austrian team to Italy is quite astonishing, with a flap above the wave cut, and above all seems quite far from the normal requirements for the Lombard track.

The top speeds recorded are not deceptive, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez being at the bottom of the ranking: the respective 347.2 km/h and 346.8 km/h are indeed far from the 353.5 km/h of Fernando Alonso, leader in this area, but above all behind poleman Lando Norris, with his 349 km/h.

This can be easily explained: Red Bull, unlike its rivals, did not bring a specific wing for Monza to reduce drag as much as possible and maximise top speed in the long full-loads of the autodrome. The Milton Keynes team focused on cutting its most unloaded wing, which is still quite far from the mark at the Italian GP.

According to Verstappen himself, this choice was made because of the budget ceiling: “You make certain choices within the budget ceiling.”explained the Dutchman. “Instead of a special wing for Monza, we spend the money on something else. But when you already have problems, it only makes the situation worse, of course.”

The choice to design and manufacture a specific wing for Monza, with the possibility that it will hardly be used for the rest of the season (except in Las Vegas), is not painless in terms of the resources used, whether financially or in terms of simulation and aero testing elements.

In the case of Red Bull, these issues are reinforced because the restrictions on aero testing linked to its position among manufacturers since 2022 prevent completely free use of the wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). This is all the more true when it comes to parts with very limited use.

So instead of spending resources on a wing for Monza (and possibly Las Vegas), the choice was made to rework the wing at its disposal offering the least downforce, by cutting two “crescents” on the upper flap, on each side of the central axis.

This concept has attracted particular attention because Red Bull is the only team to have this approach, although it is not a first this season.

This solution was indeed tested at Spa, in EL2, on Verstappen’s car, even if a small Gurney had been installed on the trailing edge of the flap in order to balance the wing (image above).

Furthermore, the approach is not very different from that which was deployed last season at Monza, even if the cut was much straighter (image below).

This option was even close to what other teams have done in the past and even to what some structures have implemented at Monza this year.

Back to 2024. In order to balance the aero loads between the front and rear, Red Bull explored the same path with the front wing, with the cutting of portions of the upper flap. The idea is still to reduce downforce and drag.

Again, we see that the adjuster has also been positioned outwards (red arrow). The team has been testing many different configurations on this plan for several races.

With Jonathan Noble, Matt Somerfield and Ronald Vording