Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Red Bull aero can close gap to leaders

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Red Bull's head of aerodynamics Dan Fallows says his department can help close the gap to Mercedes and reduce the pressure on Renault.

Renault's power unit has been largely blamed for Red Bull's tough start to the year, with the engine manufacturer even hitting back after the Australian Grand Prix claiming demands from the team were to blame for some issues. While last year's RB10 was believed to be a strong car aerodynamically it was limited by the power unit deficit to Mercedes and 2015 has followed a similar pattern so far.

Fallows says the focus on aerodynamics has actually been increased because it is an area Red Bull has full influence over, unlike the power unit.

"We went into 2015 knowing we had a long way to catch-up," Fallows said. "Everybody knows where our major deficit is but frankly, why we're being outperformed is irrelevant. We have it in our power, in the aerodynamics department, to do something about it.

"F1 has plenty of performance differentiators: there's the driver, the power unit, the aerodynamics, the use of tyres and so on, but there's really only one aspect over which the aero team can have a fundamental impact – so we go into the year knowing what the deficit is and working on the basis that it's our job in this department to close that gap. We can do it because we have the tools to do it, we've done it before and the aim is to do it again."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.