The cooling tweaks that opened the door for Red Bull’s bold sidepods

While much of the focus has been on the visuals – and especially the inlet arrangement – what is actually just as fascinating are the changes made internally to allow the shift in design in the first place.

If Red Bull had not worked hard to alter the cooling arrangements hidden beneath the bodywork, then there would have been no scope for the designers to do anything like they have managed to do.

In this respect, there’s been a significant change to how the team has positioned the various radiators and coolers under the RB20’s bodywork when compared with its predecessor.

This encompasses the position of these ancillaries not only inside the sidepod bodywork but also under the engine cover too.

To understand this, perhaps it would be best to take a closer look at the RB19 first, aided by an illustration of its internal layout. 

Over the last few years, Red Bull has moved more of its cooling priority to the car’s centreline. It particular, it mounted a large saddle-style cooler above the power unit in order to take more responsibility off the sidepod’s shoulders.

This is not a new feature by any means though, and many teams have ploughed this furrow down the years.

However, it seems to be something that Honda prefers, as each team that has been supplied a hybrid power unit by the Japanese manufacturer seems to head down that particular design route. 

That’s not to say the trend hasn’t emerged elsewhere too, with the area above the power unit seen as a sensible location in which to place coolers, albeit likely being regarded as suboptimal in terms of the mass being placed high up.

This could be part of the reason why we’ve seen Red Bull take more of a holistic overview to moving its ancillaries around within the confines of the engine cover and sidepods.

This is in order not only to meet their aerodynamic objectives but also fulfil their cooling needs and improve the distribution of mass around the car.

Red Bull Racing RB20 detail

Aside from the reduction in size of the cooler mounted above the power unit (white arrow), there’s also a significant departure in the layout of the radiator and coolers housed within the sidepod, as they no longer simply lie tail down and slightly canted in series like they did last year. 

The new arrangement now has the charge cooler (red arrow) and radiator (blue arrow) sat in a V-shaped arrangement…