F1 is so sensitive and pissed off that nobody believes that the RB18 is what Red Bull brought out in Milton Keynes yesterday. Firstly because of the time and the praise of finishing the World Cup in mid-December in a blood and stone battle with Mercedes, and secondly because nobody gives clues here, not even in February, to the enemy. All dark, with bits here and there tucked in and improvised, very similar to the first prototype for everyone that the FIA brought out a year ago, but hey, it serves to make the new sponsors look good. For Oracle to be seen, which puts on 100 kilos every year for five. 500 sticks.
Still, it is the most beautiful car in F1 in eons. Compared to the duck nose of 2014 and other FIA calves, it makes you want to cry. It seems to run while standing still and only the basics, the structural, were seen. What is missing is the secret, novel and risky, for the Montmeló tests, or not even for the first race in Bahrain. "I don't think there are two races in a row where the car is the same," says Horner, a master of the art of trilerism.
But behind him, Adrian Newey designer and genius, makes another reading, more calm, about what has barely started this year: "It is the biggest change in 40 years of F1, since 1983, when cars with tunnels were banned Venturi and flat-bottomed ones were introduced," says the last guru still standing. He is responsible for that magical 25% left to the ingenuity of those of his ilk, which is still outlined on his drawing table (he still uses a pencil and ruler, no computers) that must make the difference. And he fears, like Horner "that something has escaped us when interpreting the new car".
There are some certainties, in addition to that of Sainz and his "they will be demanding, hard to drive, different at the wheel", he assures after hours and hours of simulator. In Red Bull they value that "it will be very fast, it should be much faster on the straight with these levels of aerodynamics that the new floor gives us, very efficient. The front and rear wings no longer come from work," says Pierre Wache, Red Bull technical director
It will affect the driving of the car, the mechanical grip and the resistance of the car, because there will be much less. "It will cost at the beginning, it will not be to arrive and run, it will be necessary to adapt. For now I have seen that the tires are taller, bigger and you see them more from the cockpit," says Verstappen. Each one as the story goes, of course. "I think our record of 1.8 seconds on wheel changes is going to go on for a long time, with the weight of the wheels," jokes Horner, who has polished this maneuver to indecency, so perfect.
The ground effect returns, fat tires arrive, more weight, speed… and there is a lot of fear of screwing up because the motors freeze and the inertias are then difficult to move. Mercedes believes that at least one is going to miss the shot in an amazing way. We'll see who gets it.
