“I think the RB13 is one of the prettiest cars that we’re designed and made, because of the geometry of the car under these new regulations, the proportions look right,” says Christian Horner. “It looks mean, it looks fast. The old adage is that, if it looks right, it tends to go alright – and this car for sure looks right.”
The Red Bull RB13 was first revealed via a tweet on the teams account, and throughout pre-season testing the engineers and mechanics did all they could to keep the car away from prying eyes. “From our point of view, as an aerodynamics department, this new set of regulations is extremely exciting as we get a lot of freedom in terms of the areas of the car that can deliver quite a bit of performance. The car does look more aggressive and everybody around the factory is quite excited by that” Dan Fallows Head of Aerodynamics enthuses.
Looking at the nose of the RB13 from above the exit duct from the front and under nose ducts is visible. Note the bump between the front suspension pushrods, this is likely to accommodate the third element mounted on top of the chassis. The front camera mounts on the car are interesting too.
The nose of the Red Bull is ducted, the exact purpose of this duct is not yet clear and the team has declined to comment on it. Looking at the duct closely it is clear to see there are vertical slats in the entry and what appears to be a small internal lip.
On the lower edge of the side of the nose there are two ducts, the forwardmost of these appears to have a NACA section, and is located just in front of the ‘horns of the bull’ in the yellow section.
The rearmost duct is harder to see as it sits just about one of the flow conditioners on the floor of the car – it can be seen on the ‘ankle’ of the bull motif.
The front suspension of the RB13 features a blended lower wishbone, note the step in its trailing edge near its outboard edge.
A good look at the barge boards of the Red Bull in pre-season testing, initially these are fairly conventional but many upgrades are expected in this area of the car. Note the sidepod duct and the small bump to accommodate the side impact structure (below).
The bump to accommodate the side impact is very clear to see from the reverse, note also the cooling louvres along the sides of the cockpit.
A look at the rear pullrod area of the Red Bull, there is a slight bulge in the floor where the rod meets the suspension components mounted to the transmission casing. The upper wishbone passes through an excessively large hole in the bodywork, this is to aid cooling.
The roll hoop on the RB13 seems fairly chunky its main duct appears to be exclusively for supplying combustion air to the Renault V6 engine.
The roll over structure itself has no external supports (unusual in 2017). There is a small cooling aperture below the main duct and behind the drivers helmet.
A good look at the diffuser of the RB13, under the 2017 technical regulations this area is larger (starting further forward, wider, and higher) and more powerful.
An unusual look at the top of the diffuser shows the lower parts of the rear wing end plate, a complex array of turning vanes, as well as small blisters on the floor.
Looking from directly above the blisters can be seen clearly as can the swan neck mount from the floor to an aerodynamic element on the trailing edge of the floor. A small cut in the rear bodywork can be seen to allow the wishbone clearance.
Also of interest is a rectangular lump on the rear leg of the upper wishbone, this likely houses a sensor of some description studying the deflection of the wishbone, a key area of investigation on the new cars.
However it seems that this part is not actually legal and probably can only be used in testing as it appears to be in breach of article 10.3.3 of the 2017 technical regulations which state that: No major axis of a cross section of a suspension member, taken normal to a straight line between the inner and outer attachment points, when assessed in accordance with Article 10.3.1, may subtend an angle greater than 10° to the reference plane with the car set to the nominal design ride height.
