Red Bull F1 chief vehicle engineer Paul Monahan has explained how his team has adapted well to the new F1 technical regulations for 2022.
After a 12-month delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2022 F1 World Championship has introduced all-new F1 technical regulations aimed at making racing even more exciting.
New F1 regulations included tighter bodywork restrictions, a change from 13-inch to 18-inch tires and the reintroduction of ground effect as a means of generating downforce.
This has forced F1 teams to have little to no carryover from their 2021 cars, forcing designers to start from scratch when designing their 2022 cars.
In the first season of F1’s new era with the introduction of a new generation of cars, Red Bull Racing won both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles with relative ease and Max Verstappen set a new record of 15 wins in a season. , has emerged as a class in this field.
Red Bull Racing appears to have found a winning formula for 2022, but vehicle chief engineer Paul Monaghan says there were some hurdles it had to overcome to find the RB18’s sweet spot.
“Fundamentally, the aero requirements for the 2022 car are completely different than the 2021 car in terms of how it works on the ground,” Monaghan told RacingNews365.com.
“At the end of 2021, everyone had decent rakes on their cars and very high rear ride height. That has clearly changed with the 2022 cars.”
“The way the 2022 car generates load is very different, it’s effectively a ground effect car. The biggest thing is where it works against the ground and how you extract downforce from it. “
“If you want to lower the rear ride height, the rear axle will probably have less vertical travel, and at the end of the straight under similar loads it will be noticeably stiffer. That’s a fundamental difference. “
Many within F1 believed that the restrictive nature of the 2022 F1 regulations would create a field of virtually identical looking cars.
However, there is actually quite a bit of design variability across the pitlane, with Mercedes’ own ‘Zero Pod’ taking center stage when it was unveiled at pre-season testing.
With Red Bull Racing’s concept quickly proving to be one of the pacesetters, other teams seemed to turn to the RB18 for inspiration, with Aston Martin, Williams and McLaren The mid-season update appeared to reflect Red Bull’s chosen philosophy.
Was Red Bull Racing in doubt about choosing the right path in pre-season testing?
“In your own room, you have to look at the results and decide for yourself how to get a good car in every discipline and every circuit,” said Monaghan.
“We went our own route, but you go to the first test and think, ‘Okay, did we actually make the right choice? Do we need to correct the choice?’ because it is relative to the people of
“Was the compromise at the start of the season right? Not everything was like that. Have we evolved it? Yes.”
Three failure retirements in the first three races of 2022 threatened to derail Red Bull Racing’s title challenge, but the team quickly resolved reliability issues and scored in terms of wins and championship points. Recorded a breakout season.
With closest rivals Ferrari also plagued by unreliability and driver error, Max Verstappen turned race wins from possible second places in Spain, France and Baku. Paul Monaghan has paid tribute to Red Bull’s incredible achievements in 2022.
“With the team’s skill in research, design, implementation and operation, we have achieved a very competitive season and what we have achieved is an outright win,” said Paul Monahan. rice field.
“Was our concept different from the others? Probably not. Was our concept fundamentally good? I think so.”
Category: F1 / red bull / F1 machine