primotipo…

Mark Webber third in his Red Bull in the race won by Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari…

RB6… was the fourth car for Red Bull by modern design guru Adrian Newey, in the pantheon of design greats such as Jano, Porsche, Chapman, Barnard and others. The RB5 was the class of the back half of 2009, winning six times and placing second in the constructors championship. RB6 was an evolution of that car, and one of his best designs, up there with the Williams FW14B and McLaren MP4-13.

Red Bull attenpted to get Mercedes engines for 2010, the engine the perceived shortcoming of the package. They were unsuccessful, so the Renault RS27 was used again. This 2400cc, 90 degree, 32 valve V8 developed circa 750BHP at a rev-limited 18000RPM.

The fuel tank was larger than RB5, this change driving a host of detail changes. The chassis was a full carbon fibre and honeycomb monocoque carrying the engine as a fully stressed member, gearbox a 7 speed semi-automatic, incorporating ‘seamless shift’.

Front and rear suspension used aluminium uprights, carbon composite double wishbones, with coil springs and anti-roll bar. Pushrod (pullrod at rear) actuated multi-matic dampers.

Brembo provided the brake componentry, calipers and discs being carbon fibre, and Oz the wheels. The car weighed 620 Kg with either Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber aboard, RB drivers unchanged from the previous year.

The car was immediately the class of the 2010 field, qualifying particularly well. Other teams had suspicions around a claimed ride-height lowering device, none were found. Later in the season the teams front wing was seen to be ‘dipping’ to produce extra downforce. The FIA then increased the loads imposed on the chassis test to eliminate this possibility, but this seemed to lessen not eradicate the suspicious ‘flexing’ of the front wing assembly. In terms of aerodynamic innovation, 2010 was the year of the ‘F-Duct’, McLarens’ clever device to stall airflow over the rear wing on straights and thereby increase top speed. Like most other teams Red Bull adopted their own solution which was effective enough to maintain the advantage their overall package had.

The cars reliability was wanting at times, Vettel in particular lost wins in Melbourne and Korea as a consequence.

Looking at the car objectively… the overall package was great, with the aerodynamic component, as is always the case with Newey cars, and the pull-rod rear suspension which endowed the car with outstanding traction, the aspects which particularly stood out.

The team would have slaughtered the opposition but for greater reliability and inter-team rivalry, the team officially at least not favouring one driver, ‘bullshit’ according to Webber and most knowledgeable pundits. Still, in my view RB are to commended for allowing the drivers to race, albeit some of the pit-to-car directions on engine and other settings favoured Vettel, not Webber, so whether they were racing on equal terms is a moot point.

It is a long time, if ever, ‘The Marquis of Queensberry’ attended a GP…and if i were a Team Owner i would definitely be imposing my will to optimise the teams’ result and ferk the drivers, and punters for that matter!

All a question of which hat one chooses to wear in these matters!

By the time the drivers arrived in Singapore… Vettel had 2 wins and Webber 4, but Vettel came home strongly winning 3 of the final 4 rounds and with it his first World Drivers Championship from Alonso and Webber. Not the result we Aussies wanted at all. Red Bull also won the Constructors Championship.

I’ve been to Singapore many times, but not for the Grand Prix, sadly. The main images which drove this short article capture its key elements and ‘nightime nature’.

These cars have been hit with the ‘fugly’ stick to my mind but are veritable beauties compared with this years offerings.

Still the Lancia D50 had a similar inpact in 1954 so i guess controversial design in F1 is far from new, mind you the whole field looking and sounding like dogs is!

For those with an interest in the Technical Elements of Modern F1…

scarbsF1.com

Photo and Other Credits…

Pinterest, Darren Heath

ScarbsF1, ‘Red Bull Racing F1 Car’ Haynes

The End…

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