The Red Bull clues thrown up from Andretti’s F1’s wind tunnel model

It makes little sense for the American outfit to abandon its project just in case it gets a reprieve ahead of 2028, and the scale of progress it has made so far on its F1 ambitions was made public recently.

This was after it revealed images of its wind tunnel model, and they offered up some fascinating clues about the squad’s overall approach.

Undoubtedly the first comparison that will be drawn is with Red Bull, owing to the design of the sidepods and some of the other more intricate aspects of the car’s design.

However, you could argue that the same could be said for most of last year’s grid, as pretty much everyone has edged further towards that design variant due to the RB19’s success.

Some teams took the idea further, carving out a waterslide gulley in the upper surface, while McLaren also adopted an inlet design more akin to the RB19 with every iteration that arrived during 2023.

Meanwhile, Red Bull developed this area of the car extensively throughout the season, in order to shallow the inlet and expose more of the sidepod’s undercut to the oncoming airflow.

Given the changes Red Bull made in 2023, a better comparison is to look at the RB18, as the Andretti design more closely represents that design – not only in terms of the inlet but also the wing mirror design, which has a twin slat surround and double element mirror housing.

Interestingly, the swage line that was present midway along the flank of the RB18’s sidepod is also present.

Although that was still a feature that was present on the RB19, it was developed in conjunction with the other alterations over the course of the last two seasons.

Red Bull RB18 sidepod detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

There are also some similarities in terms of the floor edge detail, as no discernible edge wing is apparent.

Instead, the floor’s edge is segmented and rolled similarly to the RB18.

The angle in the image doesn’t provide us with a suitable view of the floor’s leading edge, or its floor fence arrangement and since this is part of the secret sauce when it comes to these new regulations, it’s unfortunate that we can’t compare the Andretti design with some of the 2023 solutions we have seen.

Nonetheless, we can see that a bib wing arrangement lies beneath the chassis and will help to power up that region, aerodynamically speaking.

Again, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before,…