Aerodynamics chief Dan Fallows thinks Red Bull can catch up despite its obvious engine disadvantage.
Although Adrian Newey is known as the sport’s aerodynamic genius, Fallows’ quality was demonstrated last year as Red Bull and McLaren tussled over his services. Now, as Red Bull laments the fact the ‘power unit’ supplied by Renault is down on power, reliability and driveability, an upbeat Fallows thinks the team can still make the difference.
“Everybody knows where our major deficit is,” he said, “but frankly, why we’re being outperformed is irrelevant. “We have it in our power, in the aerodynamics department, to do something about it,” Fallows added.
Indeed, while Mercedes benefitted from its clearly superior engine last year at the start of the new turbo V6 era, the effect of aerodynamics in 2015 is being widely talked about. “F1 has plenty of performance differentiators,” Fallows agrees.
“There’s the driver, the power unit, the aerodynamics, the use of tyres and so on. “So we go into the year knowing what the deficit is and working on the basis that it’s our job in this department to close that gap,” he added. “We can do it because we have to the tools to do it, we’ve done it before and the aim is to do it again.”
