Red Bull’s new front-wing on the first day of the final Bahrain pre-season test was not the only upgrade it brought to Sakhir.
Several changes were made to the RB22, including on the sidepods, and further small aerodynamic tweaks to the winglets on the sidepods of the engine air-intake, with additional ones also placed on the sides of the rear crash structure.
Another upgrade was concerned with reducing the drag of the sidepods, with Red Bull now moving onto the next phase of testing, having convinced itself of its reliability from the new RBPT power unit.
This is focused on optimising its package and extracting performance.
In the first week in Sakhir, the car was presented with a side completely without an undercut below the radiator mouth, which was a very conservative choice, evidently, to verify the reliability of the PU.
The new upgrade goes a step further and pushes the car’s packaging concept more towards the extreme, with more refined airflow management along the underside of the sidepods.
Head of aerodynamics Enrico Balbo also introduced several additional modifications, including new mirror supports, providing as definitive a configuration as possible before the season-opening grand prix in Australia in early March. It allows the team to confirm the chassis it will begin the season with.
The first day of testing this week, however, was not without its problems for the Milton Keynes-based team as Isack Hadjar’s car was in the pits for a considerable time.
It is unknown whether the problems encountered were related to the changes made, particularly to the sidepods, or whether there were other issues unrelated to the new development package.