TECHNICAL: Verstappen tries out innovative rear wing in second practice

Having run a higher downforce rear wing in Free Practice 1, championship runaway leader Max Verstappen reverted to an extremely low downforce rear wing assembly for the second sixty-minute practice.

As teams showed off their low-downforce aerodynamic configurations at the Cirucit de Spa-Francorchamps, it has emerged that Red Bull will run a similar rear wing configuration to their direct rivals, Ferrari and McLaren.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit went for a horizontally widely stretched, spoon-shaped main plane with its outer section featuring only a moderate concave curvature just to meet the technical regulations in this area.

As for the flap element, Red Bull opted for a slight V-shaped cut-out which is very much in line with what they have been chasing with their rear wing configurations this season. The tip section is rectangular, sporting an upward sweep.

While this rear wing assembly is a much less loaded than what Red Bull used last year, the team tried out an even skinnier configuration with Max Verstappen in Free Practice 2.

Commenting on his day, Verstappen noted after he hopped out of his RB20: “We tried quite a few things today, tweaking and testing the car, because it is typically Spa where of course you have sector one and three where you want the top speed and then a very long middle sector where you want a cornering speed."

The second version has an identical main plane to the more loaded configuration. Their flaps are also similar with both featuring the same rectacular, upward swept tip section.

However, the key difference is the upper edge of the flaps with the second assembly featuring two prominent, widely stretched convex cut-outs on both sides of the flap while it also retains the V-shaped cut-out in its middle section.

It remains to be seen which rear wing will be chosen for the remainder of the weekend. The skinnier rear wing might be useful for Verstappen as he will serve a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation with a fifth internal combustion engine.

However, should qualifying take place in damp conditions, the slightly more loaded configuration would be clearly the better choice which could mean that the Milton Keynes-headquartered squad makes his final choice right before qualifying.