Red Bull escalates F1 arms race with full car Dyno testbed

[John S]

Hush-hush MK install reason RBR overhauling Ferrari.

We have all long suspected Building 9 was an engine tech facility, however it appears it houses a lot more than that according to website Judge13. Now Matt Somerfield a respected F1 tech analyst seems to agree with them and gives us even more insight.

Red Bull Racing have installed in their secret lair – building 9 in Milton Keynes – a multi million state of the art Virtual Test Track. This AVL manufactured piece of kit has the sole purpose of harmonising the marriage of chassis and engine, to an optimum performance capabilities.

Courtesy - pagie78, theJudge13.com 26th July.

The start of Red Bull's campaign was compromised by a lack of power compared to Ferrari. However, when an updated TAG-branded Renault power unit was made available at the post-Barcelona test, suddenly the tide turned. Since Monaco, we’ve seen Red Bull make considerable inroads, with the team overtaking Ferrari in the championship standings just before the summer break.

It’s not like someone’s just turned on the lights at Red Bull though. There isn’t just one singular reason for the team's improvement, rather a collection of changes that centre around a better understanding of the overall package, starting with the power unit.

One of the areas that Mercedes got the jump on its rivals in the lead up to the hybrid era was the adoption of a chassis dynomometer, enabling them to understand the behaviour of the power unit whilst installed in the chassis.

Ferrari, Renault and Honda continued to plug away with their standard dynos, but we understand that at least Ferrari and Red Bull now have their own chassis dynomometers, allowing them to dynamically simulate the power unit's behaviour.


It is also believed that, while the Mercedes and Ferrari chassis dyno is software-based, Red Bull has renewed its simulator in order that it be linked to the chassis dyno next door, with inputs created by the drivers truly putting them ‘in-loop’ and giving an even more accurate model of how the energy recovery and brake-by-wire systems can be utilised throughout a lap for each driver.

Courtesy Matt Somerfield, master.motorsport.com, 14th August