Gary Anderson on Red Bull's intriguing Imola aero upgrade

The Red Bull Formula 1 team has revealed ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix an intriguing new turning vane underneath its sidepod inlet, as it continues its push to close the gap to the front.

While the major technical discussion point is how championship leader McLaren has such an advantage in its tyre management, development of new aero tweaks is still continuing.

At the last round in Miami, Red Bull introduced a revised floor on Verstappen’s car which is due to be fitted to both his and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda’s RB21s for this weekend’s Imola race.

But there will also be some other minor tweaks, including the extra vane that was spotted in the pitlane on Thursday.

This small vane is located just below the sidepod inlet. Although we don’t have a picture of it from the front to see how big the curvature is, I will assume it’s a curved turning vane.

If it is curved, it will set up a vortex coming off that lower corner. This could be to re-energise the airflow on the upper surface (green and orange arrows) of that undercut.

With the demands of keeping the airflow attached to the lower surface (white arrow), it is very easy to overpower the flow attachment to the upper surface (yellow arrow).

With the airflow accelerating through this undercut, helped by the low pressure underneath the main floor, the lower surface (white arrow) stays attached fairly easily.

However, the upper surface should generate some downwards force, i.e. downforce. But if the flow separates it will reduce that effect. It could also be ride height critical as the outer edges of the floor get closer to the track surface.

It’s a bit sad that this is the biggest development we are seeing prior to the first race in Europe. Still, it is the fourth year of these regulations so all the teams are running out of steam, although we may see more changes in a couple of weeks when the front wing flexibility technical directive kicks in for the Spanish Grand Prix.

McLaren gap "depressing"

Verstappen said he hoped the upgrade would bring some improvement in performance, but he was not expecting any miracles.

Asked if it would produce lap time, Verstappen replied: “A little bit. But we have already had a few races with some updates.

“This is again a little step forward. Hopefully we can find a bit more performance in the car, but I don't expect of course to suddenly close the gap to McLaren.”

Asked how big he felt the gap still was to McLaren, Verstappen said: “I think the race pace [in Miami] was depressing for everyone except McLaren. Honestly, no one was even in the same league there, you know? That is of course a big concern.”