The end of Red Bull's domination was marked in 2024 as the year progressed, when its rivals including McLaren F1 made changes. And thanks to wings with greater flexibility, the other teams took the advantage over Red Bull by being able to better balance their suspensions, as explained by the technical director of the Milton Keynes team, Pierre Waché.
“We had another aspect of the car that allowed us to rebalance it” admitted Waché. “We took advantage of it for two years. The others introduced this deflection of the front wing to allow them to balance the car and, in that respect, they are now ahead of us. We could rebalance the car in other ways , while the other teams used the flexibility of the front wing.”
“To get different aerodynamic balance depending on speed, you need some suspension movement, and the softer you are, the better. It's good for balance, but maybe not for downforce. Their front wing therefore allowed them to rebalance a much stiffer suspension.
Red Bull did not immediately decide to develop its own more flexible wing, not knowing where to place the cursor: “It was more than just waiting. We were trying to question them because we needed to know where to go, because we had a little different understanding of what was allowed.”
And the FIA's decision validating this technology was too late for the team to look into it: “The budget ceiling is one aspect. The overall aspect of resources. We have worked on it, but we also have to develop the two cars for 2025 and 2026. It is a limitation of resources: money and people .”
-Now, Red Bull is working on a wing that offers a certain flexibility for 2025 and its RB21, and Waché hopes for gains in ease of operation of the car: “Visible difference is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a larger window of balance.”
