RED BULL SACRIFICES DOWNFORCE FOR STRAIGHTLINE PACE
Due to the high-speed nature of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, teams had to make adaptations to dial out some of their drag. Although downforce increases with the square of velocity, so does drag, so mitigating the latter by trimming out the rear wing is a common strategy for the more flat-out circuits.
The 2022 aero rules have resulted in differing responses to the challenge of lower-downforce tracks. Red Bull slightly reduced the curvature of the spoon-shaped central section of the rear-wing mainplane, lifting the leading edge up. It opted to keep the Gurney flap on the upper Drs-affected element to induce some extra downforce for the slower corners, also keeping some of the camber in the mainplane, but reducing the frontal area helped the RB18 find a potent turn of pace along the straights.
This was a key weapon for Max Verstappen as he diced with Charles Leclerc, since Ferrari opted to keep a larger rear wing in an effort to hang onto more of its downforce. That meant Leclerc had the upper hand in the circuit’s first sector, which worked to keep Verstappen out of the DRS zone for most of the race, but the Dutchman’s latent pace was too strong for the Ferrari.