Red Bull arrived in Baku with a new rear wing, which will undoubtedly go some way to countering the claims over how flexible its wing has been this season. The new design features a more aggressive spoon shaping on the mainplane and a very simple endplate design, devoid of the stepped rear cutout and louvered hanging strakes.
The RB16B’s rear wing top flap doesn’t have a gurney flap installed and the trailing edge has been shaped in accordance with the spoon-shaping of the mainplane too.
The rear end of the Mercedes W12 is packed with detail, with the diffuser, rear brake duct winglets, lower T-Wing small cooling outlet and the hollowed out upright all visible in this shot.
Red Bull has been toying with different options for the brake duct inlet over recent races with configuration of the spars in the upper section adjusted. For Baku, it has split it vertically and horizontally to drive air into the necessary channels.
Having made changes to suspension elements and brake ducts for Monaco, Mercedes returned to the usual configuration for Baku.
Ferrari has cut down a section of the front wing’s top flap’s trailing edge for Baku, in order to reduce downforce and drag (see the section just left of the adjuster).
Alpine has also cut down the trailing edge of the upper flap on the front wing, while also addressing the shape of the flap tips in order to reshape the Y250 vortex differently.
Hidden behind the alignment rig we can see some of the detail of the bargeboard cluster including the series of fins with a distinctive silver finish.
Another angle of the Ferrari front wing showing how the top flap has been trimmed down.
A shot of McLaren’s front brake assembly during the build phase which makes it easy to see the skeleton of the upright buried beneath all the carbonfibre pipework
The rear end of the AMR21 with the pipework wrapped around the caliper clearly visible. Also note the small yellow dots on the rear wing that the FIA will use to evaluate the rotation of the wings from onboard rear facing camera footage this weekend.
Sergio Perez’s RB16B during the build shows some of the detail normally hidden away beneath the covers.
A close-up view of the inboard suspension elements on the RB16B.
The saddle cooler arrangement on the RB16B has been a staple of the Honda power unit arrangement since it returned to the sport.
A close up of the rear brake and suspension assembly without the drum gives an idea of where some of the air collected by the inlet is dispersed. Also note the flow through channel in the upright extension that was added toward the end of last season and has been modified further this season.
A good shot of the equipment housed in the lower half of the left-hand sidepod of the Mercedes W12.
A look at the equipment in the right-hand sidepod of the Mercedes W12.
The Williams FW43B with the engine cover bodywork off gives us a great view of the Mercedes power unit and its ancillaries.
A great overview of the Haas VF-21’s front end, including the inboard suspension and the front brake assembly. Note that without the carbon pipework attached we can see the brake caliper ventilation.
The rear wing on the Alfa Romeo C41 doesn’t have a Gurney attached to the trailing edge of the upper flap, in order to reduce some drag that would ordinarily be created by it.
A shot of the Mercedes W12 front brake assembly without the drum attached gives a good idea of where the airflow that’s collected by the inlet is sent, be it to cool components or to offer aerodynamic assistance.
The top hat drum arrangement on the Alfa Romeo C41 exposes the brake disc.
The rear brake assembly on the Alfa Romeo C41 without the drum attached gives us a clear picture of how the airflow is fed from the inlet to the brake caliper. Also note how Alfa has hung a small fin from the main brake winglet.
A close up of the Alfa Romeo C41’s inboard front suspension, with the heave element dominating proceedings.
Another look at the C41’s rear wing but this time we can see the team has returned to the endplate specification used everywhere but Monaco, with the leading-edge element displaced from the rest of the endplate.
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