Red Bull arrived at the Canadian Grand Prix with a new rear wing and Mercedes also brought upgrades to Montreal as the F1 2024 development race heats up.
Red Bull was expected to dominate their rivals again in F1 2024 after their most dominant season ever in F1 2023, winning all but one of 22 races and seeing Max Verstappen comfortably win a third consecutive World Championship.
Canadian Grand Prix upgrades: Red Bull, Mercedes and more
But despite starting the new season with four wins from the first five races, Red Bull have looked increasingly vulnerable in recent weeks as they face new threats from McLaren and Ferrari, who won in Miami and Monaco respectively.
Red Bull had their toughest weekend in a while in Monte Carlo, with Verstappen only able to finish in sixth place after team-mate Sergio Pérez crashed in the first stage of qualifying.
Following the team’s performance, Verstappen’s father José insisted Red Bull’s days of dominance were over and urged the team to respond after successful upgrades from Ferrari and McLaren.
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With Ferrari and McLaren not bringing any further improvements to Montreal, Red Bull responded by debuting a revised rear wing that features a redesigned flap running across the entire rear wing.
The flap shape has been optimized to further reduce localized loads while maintaining adequate flow stability in all conditions.
To meet the tough braking demands at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the Milton Keynes-based team has enlarged the cooling outlet ducts on the front brakes to improve reliability.
Mercedes, still waiting for its first podium of the 2024 F1 season, has made some tweaks to its front suspension, realigning the track rods and the front lower wishbone legs with the aim of reducing boundary layer losses and improving airflow to the floor.
The Silver Arrows have also made some tweaks to the W15’s front corners, increasing the size of the brake duct inlets, but this is intended for track use only.
Aston Martin is the only major team bringing new parts to Canada and this weekend is due to debut its new-look Beam Wing, which has a lower tip than the previous model.
Alpine is the only team in the bottom half not to bring in an upgrade this weekend, with Williams, RB, Sauber and Haas all looking to make a breakthrough.
Williams overhauled the suspension, using shorter steering arms at the front and a new pull-rod design at the rear.
The new rear suspension is geometrically identical to the previous design but, importantly, offers a greater range of height adjustment and allows the vehicle to be brought closer to the legal weight limit without the need to physically replace any pull rod components.
The RB features a new rear wing that is intended to generate more efficient downforce than its predecessor, and a circuit-specific front wing for Canada that reduces the overall amount of load generated by the front wing to balance the low-drag rear wing used in Montreal.
Sauber’s changes to the rear wing and beam wing this weekend are described as circuit-specific, just like Haas’, with less camber on Haas’ front wing flaps reducing loads at the front and making the front wing itself more efficient.
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