Red Bull rear wing in Hungary

[Alex Kyriak]

Was watching the highlights of Hungary again, noticed that the Red Bull produced little, if any, vapour trails off the rear wing. Certainly far less than the McLaren which was shooting the trails off. Anyone else notice this? Presumably this means the Mac was working the air harder over the wing. Where then does the RB get all it's downforce from by comparison?

 

[Chris Jenkins]

Red Bull's downforce comes mainly from their blown diffuser.
This means they can run a lower rear wing angle to try and keep up with the higher straight-line speed of the McLaren cars.

McLaren's rear wing is generally a lot bigger, to increase downforce that perhaps they are lacking from their blown diffuser system.

 

[Hubert Smolders]

Actually Alex, i think almost nobody except Mclaren had those vapour trails.
It reminded me of the good old Mika Hakkinen years...

 

[Joel Vischer]

Still don't know why the hell FIA agreed to re-replace the blown diffuser of the Red bulls, without it the red bulls can't even compete like they always do.

 

[Thomas Dougherty]

Actually Alex, i think almost nobody except Mclaren had those vapour trails.
It reminded me of the good old Mika Hakkinen years...

same. i only saw the vapor trails coming off of the McLaren. maybe one or 2 other cars had them but most of them didnt

 

[Alex Kyriak]

Well I noticed that the Mercs did, the Ferraris did, and the Torro Rossos. What was interesting was watching when a car passed using DRS. When Button passed Hamilton coming into turn 1, Hammo's wing was spewing vapour, but Button's flat wing was invisible, no drag, no hot air.

Definitely brought back notalgia of the Hakkinen days yeah!

 

[whitewolf]

i believe i saw this vapour trails on williams cars also.

 

[Yves Larose]

for me the answer is simple and its call Adrian Newey, the guy have been designing winning formula ones for years. in each team he passed throught the team won the constructor championship, he is a race engineer aerodynamicist and for me the best there is so it explain why the RB cars didn,t get the wind trailing. i don't think the RB were running less rear wing then the other cars and the RB cars always lack top speed compare to the Ferrari's or McLaren's cause of the engine they are using, they make up for the lack of top speed by being the best cars in conering.

 

[Alex Kyriak]

Totally agree with that. Would love to hear Martin Brundle and the boys discussing this subject. Presumably Newey's aero work on the parts of the car other than the primary wings themselves must somehow be significantly better than their competitors. I wonder if there's a genuinely novel approach they're using to some other parts of the car, or if it's just a lot of things in a lot of areas that are just a little bit better, even once the blown diffuser is factored into it. Remember the "bendy front bodywork" discussion last year?