Red Bull RB6

[meves]

He's the fire extinguisher man.

Cheers twoshots, my suspicious mind was working overtime and I'd hoped they'd have more faith in the cars flame retardant properties than that!

[Hangaku]

He's obviously there to pump air into their adjustable ride height system!

[gambler]

I think it may be to recharge the valvetrain system,
it also appears they have Pnenmatic wing adjusters,
and whatever else they are doing.

[autogyro]

Get away its Ron Dennis in his new job with MI5.
Hi Ron.

[djos]

Nothing realy new

It's very interesting to see that as soon as the aero load is gone the RB6 ride height appears to have gone up - Redbull may not have an adaptive ride-height system but they certainly have something clever going on! =D>

[tc9604]

It's very interesting to see that as soon as the aero load is gone the RB6 ride height appears to have gone up - Redbull may not have an adaptive ride-height system but they certainly have something clever going on! =D>

Isn't that the point of aero, negative lift?

[BreezyRacer]

It's very interesting to see that as soon as the aero load is gone the RB6 ride height appears to have gone up - Redbull may not have an adaptive ride-height system but they certainly have something clever going on! =D>

Isn't that the point of aero, negative lift?

That, and bump stops.

[segedunum]

Isn't that the point of aero, negative lift?

Yes it is, but the aerodynamic effect doesn't seem to lower other cars as much as it does with the Red Bull. There isn't any evidence that they have a ride levelling system, and I'm more convinced now from having looked closely at the car when moving that they dont, but their suspension seems to be much more sensitive than on any other car. The mystery only deepens.

[Simsym]

Everyone knows that Red Bull have the most downforce of all cars on the grid. If they are running stiff shocks and soft springs, the massive aero load may be able to compress the springs fully down to the bump stops. The car is then running on the bump stops and it does not matter what the fuel load is, the ride height will not vary. This gives them the features of a solid suspension, but still complies with FIA rule that they need to have a sprung suspension. It would also show why the ride height does not tend to vary despite different fuel loads in qualifying and in the race. The trick to design the chassis to be able to take the loads and the suspension to be able to take the loads and provide good handling.

[autogyro]

Everyone knows that Red Bull have the most downforce of all cars on the grid. If they are running stiff shocks and soft springs, the massive aero load may be able to compress the springs fully down to the bump stops. The car is then running on the bump stops and it does not matter what the fuel load is, the ride height will not vary. This gives them the features of a solid suspension, but still complies with FIA rule that they need to have a sprung suspension. It would also show why the ride height does not tend to vary despite different fuel loads in qualifying and in the race. The trick to design the chassis to be able to take the loads and the suspension to be able to take the loads and provide good handling.

Only one problem with that idea.
They need most DF at medium to slow speeds for corners and the car would only be fully low at high speed on a strait.

[raymondu999]

I kind of agree with autogyro here. It seems rather inelegant of Newey to sort of "brute force" the ride height by just having the massive aero load control the ride height...

[forty-two]

Everyone knows that Red Bull have the most downforce of all cars on the grid.

Do they? Do you have a source for this information?

If they are running stiff shocks and soft springs, the massive aero load may be able to compress the springs fully down to the bump stops. The car is then running on the bump stops and it does not matter what the fuel load is, the ride height will not vary. This gives them the features of a solid suspension, but still complies with FIA rule that they need to have a sprung suspension. It would also show why the ride height does not tend to vary despite different fuel loads in qualifying and in the race. The trick to design the chassis to be able to take the loads and the suspension to be able to take the loads and provide good handling.

I'm no expert but that sounds iffy to me. I would have thought that if that were the case, a redbul car approaching a slow corner would tend to "boing" up as the downforce reduces, which would have a sudden and severe effect upon what little downforce was left.

I understand the concept but I don't personally think this is the key.

[marcush.]

of course it will not boing up if you have some decent rebound damping in place..
also the bump rubbers will have some hysteresis damping so the car will not jump up like a rocket.
In fact this is how most racecars are sprung and damped and it works surprisingly good.
I have no real idea just how much in terms of ride height you can shed with low tyre pressure in current F1 .. does anyone have some figures for sidewall stiffness?
I remember very well that back in the days with full tank starts it was a big problem to run into an early safetycar period,because the tyre pressures just fell
so much that the cars scraped the ground for a very long time .

[Phillyred]

Nothing realy new

I think this idea may have been kicked around somewhere, but if you look at the top suspension support bar that is going into the area where we might otherwise find exhaust outlets; is it possible that this is connected to the fuel tank in some way and whether the weight of the fuel tank is some how translated through mechanical action of the bar changing in angular deviation this changes/maintains ride height? I mean for what other reasons or purpose would they go through the efforts of reworking their exhaust outlets?

[marcush.]

what could you achieve by moving that suspension pickup a few millimeters?
the suspension is clearly designed to aid airflow to the rear beam wing and difusser /underfloor area .Ther earward leg of the wishbone is at right angle with the car centreline so they need to spread the second leg forward to get some stiffness .