RB chief executive Peter Bayer believes that in hindsight the team was wrong to rush the introduction of its latest upgrade package, having not done all the analysis that was needed.
RB rolled out in Barcelona two weeks ago virtually a ‘B-spec car’ given the extent of the modifications implemented on its VCARB 01 which included changes to the car’s floor as well as a new engine cover, revised sidepod inlets, and a new rear wing and beam wing.
Unfortunately, the team’s hopes of seeing the package boost its performance and uphold its strong early season momentum in the midfield were not fulfilled.
Addressing the shortfall last weekend in Austria, Bayer called RB’s development “a bit of a belly flop”.
“We kept pushing at the factory to bring the upgrade again, a race early,” he told the media at the Red Bull Ring. “Originally, the plan was to bring it here.
“But as we’ve taken the risk of bringing a big upgrade to Miami, we thought that it’s better to bring them to Barcelona. We were pushing the team very hard.
“We had perhaps not done all the analysis we should have or needed, in fact, to have all the bits and pieces ready.
“It was a bit of a belly flop, perhaps, but we’ve learned from it. We took it back to the factory. This morning, we’ve run very different packages on both cars to provoke data.”
Indeed, RB began its Austrian Grand Prix weekend by running its cars in split specifications in a bid to better understand why its Barcelona upgrades failed to deliver on expectations.
Separate configurations were also used in Saturday’s Sprint event to help the team improve its knowledge as team principal Laurent Mekies explained.
“In the few days since Barcelona, everyone at the factory and at the track has been working hard on extending our understanding of the updates we introduced in Spain as part of our aggressive development programme,” commented the Frenchman.
“That work continued here during the only free practice session, while the sprint [race] also provided us with valuable data.
RB CEO Peter Bayer on the team's pitwall with team principal Laurent Mekies.
“It is never ideal to do specifications comparison during a Sprint weekend, but we felt that it was a necessary investment for our midterm future.
“The team and drivers did a very good job putting together the best configuration possible for Saturday and Sunday.”
On race day, Daniel Riccardo’s efforts were rewarded with a ninth-place finish while Yuki Tsunoda concluded his race a lowly P15, having never really been in the mix for a top-ten finish.
Ahead of this weekend’s round of racing at Silverstone, RB technical director Jody Egginton revealed that the team’s findings in Austria have led to an optimized aero package towards which both its cars have converged.
“As the last leg of a triple header, Silverstone is upon us only a very short time after what was a very intense Austrian GP weekend for VCARB, but we have learnt a lot about our recent aero updates in Austria and from this we have now been able to converge to a single optimised aero package for Silverstone,” Egginton explained.
“It has also been good to see the results from these experiments feeding directly into our aero development process, which I am confident will provide a tangible benefit to the next planned aero updates.”
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