F1, Mercedes vs. Red Bull, that’s why they won the W12 race in Portimao

The Portuguese Grand Prix result can be interpreted as “the end of an illusion,” with the Red Bull RB16B potentially breaking the dominance of Mercedes. However, it risks being a superficial read because the entire Lusitanian weekend has only temporarily shifted the performance balance needle in favor of the Mercedes W12. What do we mean? The performance of the two cars, as it has already been discovered since the tests in Bahrain, is very close, with the RB16B being more stable, capable of generating a higher downforce and more balanced to the bottom of the car than the competitor Brackley. The path taken by the technicians headed by Adrian Niue was to increase the downward force generated by the fund, and the major developments introduced in Portimao (which we talk about ultimately) have followed this trend.

What decided the race?

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The objection is clear: why, then, did Red Bull not win in Portugal? For tire behavior. During free practice With rather low temperatures, above all, the smoother compound produced high grains, which significantly reduced performance, on all cars, reducing the gap between them, and thus improving performance. In competitionThe opposite situation happened: higher temperatures, which further degraded. La RB16BIt is the vehicle that generates a lot of power on the tires due to the high load produced, and in Sunday race conditions this particular feature was a problem rather than an advantage. Mercedes W12On the other hand, it benefited from its high temperature, precisely because of its low energy use capacity in tires.

Montmelo variety

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This weekend’s Montmelo Trail, with its renovated asphalt in 2019, and thus with a very high grip, should make up a very different stage in that regard, although its design almost overlapped with that of Portimao. Finally, the close proximity of the values ​​in the field, this year highlights the “path sensitivity” of the cars in terms of aerodynamic and aerodynamic characteristics and “tire sensitivity”, meaning that performance depends heavily on the behavior of the tires.

Red Bull Reflectors comparison

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The new flux converters have been deeply revised in the more advanced vertical profile, which features a specular orientation compared to the previous version, and a deep, full-height inflator. A complete revision of the roller shutter grille connecting the first profile with the far rear profile. There are now ten horizontal elements (blades).

In Tondo (Image 2), the previous version (Imola) was definitely less complex than the last development presented in Portimao.