Red Bull RB18

[Sieper]

It sounds quite logical to me. We know that Newey likes to package very tightly. He has overdone that a few times, so this would not be a surprise.
On the other hand: it doesn't look so tightly packaged to me. When you look from above the side pods seem large enough, and the whole car looks less tight than the Mercedes.

In fact, W13 seems far more tightly packaged than W12 whereas RB18 appears more conservative in packaging as there is a lot of body work at play for seemingly, aero purposes providing more room for ancillaries. It's nowhere as tight as RB16B was.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMR96LHXoAU ... ame=medium

Given the comment earlier about "wait for Bahrain", those sidepods look remarkably as if they are dummies, installed over the top of far slimmer "real ones" - they remind me less of an F1 car in testing, and more of the sort of camouflage panels historically used by road car manufacturers to mask the shape of new cars under test.

That would almost be ridiculous, I always say, the car is what it is. Hard enough to develop. But I too do have a suspicion it could be packed tighter. The top of the nosecone (yellow) also leaves the impression there could be some room under it. But probably we are just seeing ghosts!

[Tim.Wright]

This baffles me. Looks like neutral ackerman, quite some camber, but huge caster. But why? I would think with ground effect cars, one would want minimum roll and pitch, but caster hints at high roll imo.

The outboard points are arbitraily placed - don't pay any attention to steering axis orientation or Ackermann.

I just wanted to show the side view inclination of the links.

[JPower]

Why is everyone still obsessed with slim sidepods? Teams are using larger designs for a reason. No reason to think Red Bull is doing any differently.

All the teams have talked about using an open mind using the new regs and people are still applying old standards.

[Neuron]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMR96LHXoAU ... ame=medium

It's scary me a lot. Too much different approach. One of them must be totally wrong... but which one?

[shamyakovic]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMR96LHXoAU ... ame=medium

It's scary me a lot. Too much different approach. One of them must be totally wrong... but which one?

Merc were the only team to have long wheelbase and very low rake since 2014, every other car switched to high rake short wheelbase concept, and merc still won all the championships in the last 8 years.. its not about the approach, but its about how exactly the entire package works.

[Just_a_fan]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMR96LHXoAU ... ame=medium

It's scary me a lot. Too much different approach. One of them must be totally wrong... but which one?

Why must one be totally wrong? Both might be correct, both might be wrong.

[AeroDynamic]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMR96LHXoAU ... ame=medium

It's scary me a lot. Too much different approach. One of them must be totally wrong... but which one?

Why must one be totally wrong? Both might be correct, both might be wrong.

yeah, I mean.. it could be the RBR concept is quicker for cornering with DF as has always been the case since a decade or so.

Mercedes will probably be fast in a straight line if the engine is on par with rivals. The regs are all new but the teams have philosophies in their DNA. we'll see.

[Bandit1216]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMR96LHXoAU ... ame=medium

It's scary me a lot. Too much different approach. One of them must be totally wrong... but which one?

Why must one be totally wrong? Both might be correct, both might be wrong.

Or one is a sleak monza winning straightline bullet having minimum drag, and the other is a more diffuser anabling corner eating beast.

[Just_a_fan]

It's scary me a lot. Too much different approach. One of them must be totally wrong... but which one?

Why must one be totally wrong? Both might be correct, both might be wrong.

Or one is a sleak monza winning straightline bullet having minimum drag, and the other is a more diffuser anabling corner eating beast.

And we have no way of knowing which is which at this stage. It's just as possible that the RB is low drag and the Merc high downforce. We just don't know and ultimately only races will show us.

[DiogoBrand]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMR96LHXoAU ... ame=medium

It's scary me a lot. Too much different approach. One of them must be totally wrong... but which one?

Just because you have similar looking cars doesn't mean they perform equally. Just because you have different looking cars doesn't mean they have different performance levels.

[Neuron]

I understand you guys, just... past years where cars were more or less similar in their shape now makes me shocked when I see that two top end competitors looks absolutely different from the top in this case. It's hard to believe that such different shapes would be par on performance. But it makes this season even more spicy!

[PlatinumZealot]

Racing Point RP21 and Mercedes W12 is the perfect example that looks aren't everything!

[ENGINE TUNER]

Doesn't the car look unfinished?

interesting 'kevlar' looking undercut sidpod there , you'd think it would be carbon like the rest of the bodywork? no expert here..

Possibly they are side intrusion protection panels which by regulation are required to be Kevlar.

[ENGINE TUNER]

Pushrod rear?

https://i.imgur.com/zhPBiVx.png

The amount of open floor real estate under the sidepod intakes are just insane!

IT'S FREE REAL ESTATE!!!

[ringo]

Redbull has a risk of overheating. The area under the oracle logo will be fried quite often.
They are pushing the limits for sure. Normally the radiator is tilted forward in the sidepods, with the sidepod having reasonable volume for other equipment and for hot air to flow around and out.
This design is as if all the equipment was crammed together then they scalloped that volume that's normally before the radiators.
Fastest car on the grid for sure, based on the floor, the floor vortex generator end plates, the sidepod wing, the undercut, the beam wing, the diffuser, the rear brake ducts... But most reliable and driveable? I think that is the bigger mystery with this machine.
The Mercedes car appears more conservative, but it has equally small sidepods, but most of all the design seems more robust and it just appears to be less aero sensitive.
This indeed is a very extreme and precise design. Nothing was spared. Even the front wheel hub and pull rods are extremely clean and light and low drag.

Without trying to sound facetious, what experience are you basing your opinion on?

It's all based on the ellipse.

You may jest about this.. But it is indeed true. And the team will not stray from that philosophy.
It is simply the most aerodynamically efficient shape.
A similar discussion would be to analyze a bridge, for those of us here in engineering.. If a bridge is optimized for load and weight, what is the resulting shape of it's profile?
For non engineers, you can google it. But similar principles apply to aerodynamics. Some shapes are simply more aerodynamically efficient if you want most downforce per square area and the least lift.

The reason I say the car may have heating issues is the material that is placed below the oracle sticker. It could be a heat resistant material; which we have seen before but in smaller sections.

As for the car being fast, its simply very efficient use of surfacing. It's the least bulky car on the grid in that regard.
I would hazard a bet that it is very fast and balanced; like all the redbulls have been.