Red Bull RB7 Renault

[kalinka]

Hey...it's someone's foot under the left rear wheel ?

EDIT: Richard beat me on that observation =D>

[bot6]

More ways than one to jack up a car...

[SiLo]

Surely they can't have that many wings on the brake ducts? That's ridiculous.

[bot6]

Hopefully, a tweak in the regulations for next year will take care of that. Because right now it's getting out of hand a little bit...

[wesley123]

Yes indeed, then there is another part that is not interresting to look at, the only reason I still enjoy F1 is because of things like these.

[marcush.]

But ,as predicted the RedBull KERS is the weak link in their system.Vettel having no KERS in Q3 .Is this going to compromise their Sunday potentially ,not that they could not repair it or reset or whatever.but was there any race when both drivers had full use of KERS even at the start? As soon as someone gets near their pace they will struggle to stay ahead without the system working reliable.
And I´m pretty sure they will not get on top of this till a lot later in the year.Maybe they need to ax it completely and just use it as ballast.

[ringo]

I wonder what their qualifying engine map is?

The same goes for the r31 car, because renault didn't look like beating mercedes today and they pulled it of in q3.

How much different can it be from the other cars?

[raymondu999]

To be fair Ringo; it could just be speed from the RB7. Traditionally Catalunya's been a Newey playground.

[SiLo]

Where did that second go? I'm confused as to how a second a lap advantage can be lost simply by putting fuel in the car.

Mclaren will be happy to let Red Bull have the front row if they know they can match or beat them in the race currently. I think Red Bull are going to have a bigger fight for the championship this year than last, but only if Mclaren find the speed from their car that is obviously there.

[oli]

In qualifying all drivers can open DRS more frequently and red bull drivers for a longer period of time. During the race only once and within a defined stretch.

[rfs]

Where did that second go? I'm confused as to how a second a lap advantage can be lost simply by putting fuel in the car.

I think besides being able to use DRS a bit more than other cars in qualifying, Red Bull can't push the Pirellis as hard in the race as they would in qualifying.

[vinuneuro]

I wonder what their qualifying engine map is?

The same goes for the r31 car, because renault didn't look like beating mercedes today and they pulled it of in q3.

How much different can it be from the other cars?

I'm wondering the same thing, it's really bizarre. 1 sec advantage in quali vs. the race is substantial. I don't think it's them being less ride height sensitive either since they didn't run away at the end of the race. How different can their Q3 mapping possibly be? Other engine suppliers like MB and Ferrari aren't slouches and there's only so much to exploit within what's physically possible from the tune.

[i70q7m7ghw]

It's possible RB run a very aggresive retarded ignition engine map for qualifying only, burning more fuel and putting more heat through the exhaust, something they probably can't do for an entire race distance.

I don't think Red Bull were a full second slower in the race, I think McLaren were faster as well. McLaren certainly didn't look that fast in qualifying compared to Ferrari/Merc.

[hotochan]

is it true that before the race, seb was told by his race engineer that retarded ignition mapping would be deactivated?

[doink]

It's possible RB run a very aggresive retarded ignition engine map for qualifying only, burning more fuel and putting more heat through the exhaust, something they probably can't do for an entire race distance.

I don't think Red Bull were a full second slower in the race, I think McLaren were faster as well. McLaren certainly didn't look that fast in qualifying compared to Ferrari/Merc.

Agreed.

I have been thinking for a while on what has been happening with the RB7's qualification times and how it's vastly destroying the competition at present. What we know right now for a fact is that during qualification RB are able to deploy their DRS in places where the next closest runners, McLaren, can't. This is showing significant downforce through the high speed corners with their qualification setup. We know the RB has a great high speed cornering ability, but with the DRS enabled?

This points to RB having a different and much, much more aggressive engine map. One that is configured to blow the defuser in a way that cannot be repeated in race conditions, potentially due to fuel or other mechanical restrictions that make it vastly unsustainable.

Do the rules allow for such aggressive engine map changes between qualification and the race?

Either way, got to hand it to them, fantastic car.