29/06/2025 14:20
On Saturday morning at the Austrian Grand Prix, there was a notable
element of the Red Bull car that required further inspection. A
strong resemblance could be observed between the RB21's current
floor and that of the Ferrari SF-25. At its home race in Austria,
Red Bull introduced a so-called 'parting grove' for the first time,
located roughly 30 centimetres in front of the rear edge of the
floor, in front of the rear wheels. It is something that has been
present on Ferrari's car for years, with the function of creating a
seal in line with the throat of the diffuser. It's a philosophy
that is opposite to that of the previous version of the floor used
by the Red Bull RB21, which fundamentally followed the same
philosophy as McLaren. The main feature was a longitudinal slot
that created a kind of longitudinal sword edge. That feature ended
exactly where the new perpendicular slot has now appeared on the
lateral edge. It also demonstrates how teams consider implementing
the solutions that appear on competitor cars. Perhaps it is not
always the most competitive, but the specific solution does show
valid intuition and originality. The use of Red Bull adopting the
concept may stem surprise, given the Italian squad has struggled
for performance this year. But the most relevant problems of the
SF-25 are not in the aerodynamic concept but rather in the low
consistency of aerodynamic performance caused by unpredictable
dynamics of the car.
