Red Bull may have had a disastrous winter, but designer Adrian Newey’s attention to detail is as sharp as ever in 2014.
Keen-eyed observers noticed throughout the winter and again in Melbourne on Friday that the new RB10 did not have the FIA camera mountings installed as per normal. Because it was only testing, the nose configuration was not ‘illegal’ at Jerez or in Bahrain, but the camera mountings are mandatory at the actual grands prix.
So how is Red Bull getting away with it in Melbourne? A much closer look at the nose of the Newey-penned 2014 car at Albert Park reveals that a hole for the television camera lens has been cut between the ‘Casio’ and ‘Pirelli’ logos in the nose. The disguised FIA camera in the Red Bull can be seen at Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport: “The trick by aerodynamics guru Newey, who reads the rules carefully, means no inconvenient parts are in the wind,” said correspondent Michael Schmidt.
The rules say the mountings must not be located inside the carbon structure, but Newey has found a loophole by putting the camera inside the ‘vanity panel’, a non-structural covering introduced last year to hide the unseemly nose steps. Newey’s solution also means Formula One Management can no longer use the Red Bull for a rearward-facing television view, whose images last year led to suggestions the title-winning 2013 car had an illegally bending floor.
Info: GMM, Image: Auto Motor und Sport
