Red Bull has brought a major five-pronged upgrade to its RB21 for Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.
In what is expected to be one of the final significant developments for its 2025 challenger before work switches entirely to next season, Red Bull has unleashed a host of revisions for the Spa-Francorchamps weekend.
The improvements come off the back of recent floor updates, and are focused on several key areas of the car. These include a revised front wing, sidepod inlets and engine cover.
Front wing
The first and second elements of the front wing have had their camber and incidence changed, with adaptations made to the other flaps to comply with bodywork regulations.
The aim is to revise the pressure distribution across the first two wing elements and help increase downforce.
Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan said the performance gains that had been found from the front wing tweak justified the team committing resource and money to manufacturing it during the mini-break after the British GP.
“The front wing is an ongoing development process,” he said. “You finish one, but the CFD research and the windtunnel research doesn't necessarily stop.
“If the gains you make in those environments, where the amazing people that do this, yield sufficient gain, then we can trigger to make a new front wing, which we had the time and money to do.”
Sidepod inlet
In a bid to prepare for tracks that will challenge engine cooling more, Red Bull has revised its sidepod inlets – merging the two openings into one, and widening the upper portion.
While the changes to the sidepods are primarily aimed at improving cooling, Monaghan said that the benefits were not just about improving reliability.
“We can draw an overall performance benefit by doing what we've done with the sidepod,” he said.
“We've done it because it's an overall benefit to the car and overall benefit to our lap time. So they [the upgrades] are all kind of going in that direction, rather than being a pure troubleshoot.”
Engine cover
As a consequence of the changes to the sidepod inlet and therefore the split lines to the top bodywork areas, the engine cover has been revised to work in harmony with this – and link airflow up with the floor.
Furthermore, the rear suspension shrouds have been revised to suit the new top body.
Front suspension
The inboard fairings of the front suspension have had some camber added to them to help aid the pressure that is available to the new sidepod inlets.
Brake duct bodyworks
Minor changes have been made to the profile of the lower cascade of the rear wheel bodywork, which has more camber and a trailing edge trim to the endplate which is aimed at delivering more downforce.
