Is the RB19 Dominant?

[TimW]

A big difference is also that with the current cars you need a far smaller laptime delta to be able to overtake, because following close is not an issue anymore.

In the previous regulations that would commonly need more than a second laptime delta to be able to overtake. On top of that the dominant Mercedes of the past were known to be poor for following in dirty air. So they needed even more pace advantage for an overtake.
Under the current regulations they would have been blasting past other cars, like RB is doing now.

[wogx]

If Hamilton goes in front of the cameras and says the RB19 is the most dominant car he has ever seen, that doesn't mean he appreciates RedBull's effort, he just lays the groundwork for belittling Verstappen's third title. One day, some journalist like Kravitz will repeat Hamilton's words just to further build the cult of LH.

That's how it works

[fourmula1]

Yes, the car is dominant (so far) by all measures in my opinion. Huge respect to the technical staff. Do not love the way the team runs and manages drivers and media but I guess that isn't relevant to this. If PER is able to challenge VER for the title, and if the team allows them to truly fight, it could be an amazing season. I only have a problem with the dominance if it is one driver, all the time, no matter what (both because of his talent AND because of the team politics). I hope they battle and we get to see the true pace of the car, much like the MERC years. Even if it is a battle two minutes up the road, how incredible would that be.

[VivecF1]

Yes, the car is dominant (so far) by all measures in my opinion. Huge respect to the technical staff. Do not love the way the team runs and manages drivers and media but I guess that isn't relevant to this. If PER is able to challenge VER for the title, and if the team allows them to truly fight, it could be an amazing season. I only have a problem with the dominance if it is one driver, all the time, no matter what (both because of his talent AND because of the team politics). I hope they battle and we get to see the true pace of the car, much like the MERC years. Even if it is a battle two minutes up the road, how incredible would that be.

Alas there doesn't seem to be a sliver of hope for that .
Perez won in Jeddah just because his teammate had to come from p15.
If Ferrari doesn't get their shizzle together, if AM doesn't find a heap of luck and if Mercedes' B-spec car isn't a miracle... it's gonna be one of those seasons...

[langedweil]

Imho the current difference in performancelevel is 50% RB hitting the sweet spot in feb 2022, being able to develop the concept to where it is today with hardly any bad design/development mistakes.
The other 50% surely lies with their usual competition (MB & FER) stacking mistake on mistake; Fer is just a mess (for months already) and leaning way too much on a concept that didn't really work after TD39, and MB that kept getting blindsided by their own ignorance. Especially MB should know what it means if your competitor can stop developing by June and still win WDC/WCC (they've done for years themselves). So at least half the difference has come from complacency, not so much wizardry.

The video about Rus getting passed by Ver without DRS being 'proof' of an insane speed delta is bullocks, as DRS from Ver was wide open and telemetry cleary shows RUS was in full regen, most likely to be able to defend from Ham. FFS Rus wasn't even doing 300kph there, just minding his own business.
Don't get me wrong: the RB is a very very good car, but a good chunk of that is to be related to poor developing of it's competitors (see AMR's jump).

Anyway, I still feel the biggest floor trick (combined with suspension) lies in the fact RB can somehow bleed excessive floorgenerated DF right before porpoising starts. And aside that Newey for 2022 undertook his usual design-philosophy route by first creating a stable, predictable and widely manageble platform, before throwing everything to it.
Honda ofcourse did their magic truly well on the PU side of things ..

[KimiRai]

Pulling back .750 of a second will be strong work for AMR in my opinion. A mountain of work for in season development.

RB could rock up with the Rb18 and still be ahead

Dan Fallows who likely knew the RB18's numbers has said that they surpassed those with the AMR23.

[Farnborough]

If Hamilton goes in front of the cameras and says the RB19 is the most dominant car he has ever seen, that doesn't mean he appreciates RedBull's effort, he just lays the groundwork for belittling Verstappen's third title. One day, some journalist like Kravitz will repeat Hamilton's words just to further build the cult of LH.

That's how it works

Yes agree, it's tiresome and usually amplified by the brit-press into general crappy outlook as to why there's no winning currently.

[Farnborough]

Anyway, I still feel the biggest floor trick (combined with suspension) lies in the fact RB can somehow bleed excessive floorgenerated DF right before porpoising starts. And aside that Newey for 2022 undertook his usual design-philosophy route by first creating a stable, predictable and widely manageble platform, before throwing everything to it.
Honda ofcourse did their magic truly well on the PU side of things ..

Agree with this, everyone seems to be chasing ultimate maximum downforce and demonstrating they can't finitely control that as it reaches it's peak.

It looks like the "empire state building architecture" shaping on that RB inderfloor plays quite a role in bringing a soft termination of rise in vacuum as car approaches the ground under maximum downward travel, rather than just bounce it into exciting the tyre carcass by crashing into full on suck. Aided by that "mousehole" bleed into the rear part of diffuser geometry to mitigate too high sealing as the edges approach the ground beside the rear wheels.

Just as much influence would seem to be a very stable ride height and roll on front axle, this to provide highly linear feed flow into front end of floor by keep those strakes on entry consistent in relation to ground. It just gives much more predictable numbers to work the diffuser with rather than oscillations in volume to effectively pulse the whole underfloor.

[Zynerji]

If Hamilton goes in front of the cameras and says the RB19 is the most dominant car he has ever seen, that doesn't mean he appreciates RedBull's effort, he just lays the groundwork for belittling Verstappen's third title. One day, some journalist like Kravitz will repeat Hamilton's words just to further build the cult of LH.

That's how it works

Yes agree, it's tiresome and usually amplified by the brit-press into general crappy outlook as to why there's no winning currently.

The same people that cried for years that it wasn't Vettel, it was the car. 2014-2020 seems to be driver-only to those same people however...

[chrisc90]

Pulling back .750 of a second will be strong work for AMR in my opinion. A mountain of work for in season development.

RB could rock up with the Rb18 and still be ahead

Dan Fallows who likely knew the RB18's numbers has said that they surpassed those with the AMR23.

Not disputing that at all. However it would be interesting to compare race pace track to track, or at Least quali pace. I know there’s a LOT of variables, but calculations aren’t going to be miles away.

[PlatinumZealot]

He was talking pure laptime at Bahrain i thinm.

[fourmula1]

Yes, the car is dominant (so far) by all measures in my opinion. Huge respect to the technical staff. Do not love the way the team runs and manages drivers and media but I guess that isn't relevant to this. If PER is able to challenge VER for the title, and if the team allows them to truly fight, it could be an amazing season. I only have a problem with the dominance if it is one driver, all the time, no matter what (both because of his talent AND because of the team politics). I hope they battle and we get to see the true pace of the car, much like the MERC years. Even if it is a battle two minutes up the road, how incredible would that be.

Alas there doesn't seem to be a sliver of hope for that .
Perez won in Jeddah just because his teammate had to come from p15.
If Ferrari doesn't get their shizzle together, if AM doesn't find a heap of luck and if Mercedes' B-spec car isn't a miracle... it's gonna be one of those seasons...

I’ll remain a delusional/hopeful fan of F1 and keep saying “but maybe!!!”. Maybe RB gets more positive PR if they have a teammate battle instead of one driver winning everything and cruising to the title. There is only one type of fan who wants to see the latter. RB already has them as a fanbase so expand by putting on a show.

[AR3-GP]

He was talking pure laptime at Bahrain i thinm.

What was vague was whether he referred to the launch spec RB18 or the end of season Rb18

[napoleon1981]

It still isnt clear to me why it is so aero efficient. Is there an underfloor trick, or is it an extremely optimized whole package?

A comparison from straight on front view of RB shows how clean aerodynamically it is in comparison. There's very few extras in trying to control flow too.
The suspension links are also minimal in comparison to the mercedes et al, the AM is following the RB in this respect.

Look how clean the top of the sidepod and mirror treatment is too, there's very little additional flow control / conditioning over and above the basic structure design.

Backed up by the flo-vis we seen in testing along the full length of the side pod.

I have seen those pictures. Clean flowfiz on a sidepot to me is a good sign, but not exclusive to a dominant car.

[JordanMugen]

A big difference is also that with the current cars you need a far smaller laptime delta to be able to overtake, because following close is not an issue anymore.

You need to fast in a straight line though.

Draggy cars like the McLaren seem to be poor at overtaking, while slippery cars like Williams seem better placed to defend positions.